Forgotten
by thesuperawesomebookworm
Summary: When Sophie was kidnapped her captors took something precious from her. She's still missing and presumed dead. What happens when her elven friends finally find her, but she can't remember them. When the Black Swan discovers they can't trust their own people. When Sophie discovers everything she now knows is a lie.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi all! I'm back! So this is an idea I have had floating around in my head since I read the book for the first time. (And since I read all my favorite books like a billion times that was a while ago. I think I've read this one like, 16 times.) It takes place during the first book when Sophie was kidnapped but it ends differently. I hope you like it. (:**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing pertaining to KoTLC. Those rights belong the amazing Shannon Messenger whom, sadly, will never be me.**

 **Forkle POV**

After ten days he had finally found their hide out. He had finally found her. It was creative- he had to give them that- to hide in the Forbidden Cities. Especially a place such as France. But not creative enough. He was standing in a tight alleyway in between two tall buildings, both made of stone, watching a seemingly plain cellar door. Little did the human passerbys know, the seemingly harmless door led into an old underground tunnel, which was currently being used as a way to and from the Neverseen's cave hideout. The one where they were keeping Sophie.

Having previously noted when people would be watching the door, he knew now was the time to act. Springing into action, he pulled it open and jumped down onto the stone ground. It was time to rescue a couple young elves.

…

Having momentarily disposed of the Neverseen guarding Sophie he entered the room where she was being kept and froze in horror at what he saw. Lying in an unmoving heap in the corner was Sophie. But it wasn't her. What he saw was a bloody, burned, bruised, skinny version of the happy girl he had watched over all those years.

Feeling a surge of grief he approached the unconscious form, and with more tenderness than he knew he was capable of he lifted her small body and began to leave. He tried to go fast, knowing he couldn't leave Dexter with these monsters. He may not be a perfect man but doing what is necessary is far different from this. This is torture. After he had climbed out of the cellar he carried Sophie into on of the buildings, having noticed its vacancy.

"I'll be back soon Sophie. That's a promise."

…

After he had dropped Dexter next to Sophie he realized how glad he was he had not eaten any ruckleberries recently. He may not have been able to do so much under their influence.

He knew they needed to get to a safer place, especially to help Sophie, but they were both unconscious. "Sophie, can you hear me? I need you to wake up. You're safe but not for long. I need you two to help me help you." He said as he gently shook her shoulders, wincing as he felt her burning skin.

She began to stir groaning "What's going on? Where am I" She said grimacing as she tried to sit up.

"Sophie you need to stay awake. I'm getting you out of here but we must be quick."

"What? Out of where?"

"I-"He stopped abruptly, a terrible pit of dread settling in his stomach. "Sophie look at me." He ordered, worry laced in each word.

She raised her vacant brown eyes to his, and he knew his dread was right. "Who's Sophie?"

 **Don't worry it will be explained in further chapters. But didya like it? I plan on it being a lot longer than my last story. In my outline it's 25+ chapters. How far I take it will depend on if you guys like it so please review. TELL ME. Until next time. Have a cookie (::). (:**


	2. Chapter 2

**So hopefully this chapter sheds some light on that last one. The italics in the beginning are lines directly from the book.**

 **Shout outs to my first reviewer Sara: You are obviously an awesome person with even awesomer taste (:**

 **Keeper: Oh just wait the plot I wrote for this fic is more complex than any other I've written.**

 **Hailey: Oh my gosh your enthusiasm is so flattering here's the update**

 **Disclaimer: This goes for all the following chapters cause' I'm lazy. I own nothing pertaining to KoTLC. All rights to Shannon unless I add another character.**

 **Sophie POV (Flash to the day before)**

 _"_ _The easiest thing would be to kill you and your little friend and be rid of you both. But it's never that easy, is it? Sure it is with you friend. He'll be disposed of soon enough."_

 _"_ _Why? It's me you want. Why don't you just let him go?"_

 _"_ _And cast suspicion on your disappearance? No, we can't have that. Don't worry he wont feel a thing. I'm not a monster after all."_

 _"_ _You're worse than a monster! You kill innocent children!"_

Sophie could feel him, his face mere inches from hers, grab her forearms as he breathed in his chilling whisper, "Oh no my dear Moonlark. The Black Swan took away any innocence from you a _long_ time ago." His grip tightened warming her skin to an uncomfortable heat. "If you are so innocent why do you seem to always be in my way?" He twisted her skin tighter. She cried out, sobbing as the horrible smell of burning skin filled the room. "Why do you always fight the Black Swan's battles? If you're so innocent, then why are you their little weapon, their powerful little toy?"

Sophie tried to respond, to beg him to stop, but it took all her will power just to keep from blacking out. "It makes you wonder," Her captor mused, "What they would do if I took their little puppet away?" He leaned in, his lips brushing against her ear, " _Permanently."_

"I-I don't understand! You're Fintan! You're _part_ of the Black Swan!" Sophie cried desperately. At this the owner of the ghostly whisper began to laugh, a full on maniacal laughter fit. _I'm at the mercy of a complete lunatic._

In a last ditch effort she reached out, trying to reach Fitz, transmitting to him for help.

 _But you're dead._

 _Not yet. Please Fitz-_

She was cut short by someone hitting her head so hard had she not been tied down, she would have fallen out of the chair. "She was transmitting again."

"Oh Sophie, if only you knew." The pyrokinetic sneered. "I'm not going to kill you, my dear." He said as he grabbed her chin with surprising gentleness. "No, I'm going to make you _mine._ I'm going to turn the Black Swan's own precious weapon against them."

"I will _never_ help you!" Sophie shouted with as much conviction she could muster through her pain.

"Well see now, you don't really have a choice." With a smile in his voice he called out to the telepath who had hit her, "Quinlin, come here and wipe her, will you."

"What? Quinlin? But you-I don't understand! And what do you mean _wipe her!"_

"Exactly what it sounds like you little brat. Quinlin here is going to wipe you mind. Obviously."

Trying to think over here pounding heart Sophie tried to remind herself they couldn't penetrate her mind. That she was safe. But their confidence was disconcerting. "You know as well as anyone that my mind is impenetrable. You yourself couldn't get past my blocking. What makes you think you can now?"

"Because I've always known how to get in. I was past your barrier that first day! But do you think I wanted to explain that to the council? I'm not an imbecile, Sophie. I'm in there right now." And her heart might as well as stopped right then when she searched her mind and found a trace of his consciousness.

" _How?"_ Sophie didn't try to stop her voice from shaking now. Didn't try to hide her fear.

"I have my ways. Past alliances. But that is neither here nor now. If I were you I would say some goodbyes. You may notice some, _absences_ from your memory rather soon." With that he pressed his fingers onto her bloody temple and before she could utter one more word, she felt her world fall apart.

No, she felt it disappear.

 **Am I a horrible person? I just realized this entire chapter was a torture scene. And that Sophie has a worse life in any story I've written than in the actual book. Yep. I'm a terrible person. Well I hope it makes good reading. REVIEW. Bye (:**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's an extra long chapter to make up for skipping a day. I had some problems getting it up.**

 **Hailey: Hi again(: Their reactions happens to be the part I am most looking forward to writing too.**

 **Hey: Aww thanks here's that update**

 **Cool Kid: Sorry for the wait here it is (awesome name BTW)**

"There's no need to be afraid, Sophie. I'm here to help you." He said kneeling so she could look him in the eye where she laid in bed. He had been forced to light leap them to safety due to their recent development. Sophie had to be as far away as possible from the Neverseen or Elvin Council while he worked on her. Unfortunately, that meant that he had alerted both to their location, and while he had done everything possible to confuse their tracking, he knew they had very little time.

"You keep saying that. 'Sophie'. Is that my name? Why would I be in danger? Why can't I remember anything? Who are-"

"Yes," The wizened Elf interjected, "Your name is Sophie, we are at a motel in Alaska, you are in danger, an impending danger I am trying to keep you from so if you value your life and sanity I suggest you stop asking questions and start answering mine. Alright?" Dex unconsciously groaned next to them, as if complaining about his lack of a bed in his sleep. _Kids._

Sophie's looked at him, squinting a little, pursed her lips, and nodded; apparently deciding to trust him. "Okay. What-"She gasped in pain, apparently the numbing potion he had given her was wearing off. She took a deep, shaky breath and continued. "What do I need to do?"

"Good girl. Now what I want you to do is close your eyes-you might want to relax a little bit it will help the pain, that's good-and search. Look into your mind. It has had quite the strain put on it so chances are some memories are just in hiding from the trauma. Now you want to start with the easy things. Who you are for example."

She opened one eye and looked at his strangely. "What?"

"You make it sound as if they are alive. My memories, I mean."

He gave her a smile that held more knowledge and secrets than she could tell and said to her, "You don't know the half of it." Staring for only a moment longer she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to search.

While Sophie was searching for herself, quite literally, the man stood. He watched her as she winced in pain with each breathe. He hated having to make her work while her body was so physically damaged, but he needed to know how extensive her _internal_ damage was. It was imperative that he knew as soon as possible. Still, watching the young girl in so much pain was becoming increasing difficult so he turned to Dex and sighed. "I supposed I should check on you as well, shouldn't I."

After a thorough search, only finding a small burn and some malnutrition-both easily treated- he lightly patted the boy's cheek. "Looks like you've gotten off easy. You lucky elf." **(AN: It said something else in my rough draft but I don't know how I feel about swearing in this story)**

"Sophie." He spun around to see Sophie struggling to sit herself up. He rushed over to help her and as he did she grabbed his wrist. "Sophie." She said stronger this time. More confidently. "My name is Sophie Elizabeth Foster." She looked at him and smiled. "I remember! I live in San Diego with my parents and my little sister Amy! I'm 12 and I am a senior at the high school!"

"Yes, well that was a little while ago. You are 13 now. But I want you to think. What about your telepathy? And -this is important Sophie- what is the very last thing you remember?"

She frowned at him. "Telepathy? You mean that thing where people can lift stuff with their mind? You know that's not real right?"

"No, that's telekinesis and a completely different subject. Are you telling me you don't remember being a telepath? Your migraines? Perhaps hearing something you didn't want to know?"

She seemed very skeptical of his strange questions "No," She drew out, "I can't say that I have. I mean, I have photographic memory if that's want you mean."

"Sure. Yes that's-that's what I mean. Tell me, what is the last thing you can remember?"

"Um, well my class and I went on a field trip to the museum. _The very last thing_ " she mused, "Well that would have to be when this guy, he couldn't have been more than 15, came up to me and asked me about my picture in the paper. It was weird, but he asked me about my eye color. I mean, who does that? So then I say bye and go outside for some air. Never saw him again but that's as far as I can remember. I must have blacked out from the smoke or something."

"I suppose you must have." This was bad. Very, very bad. A select few could master blocking or implanting memories. Even fewer could alter preexisting memories. But only one other person could control when an elf developed their ability. And not even he could block abilities that had already been developed. There was only one person who would have been able to do that, and to _Sophie's_ mind no less. The only person capable would have had to have been train by _him._ And there was only one person who he had taught how to do so. Who had grown even stronger than himself. Who had convinced him that breaking Prentice's mind was necessary for his cover. One person who had stood by his side claiming to be loyal to the Black Swan. One man. _Quinlin._ And if his most trusted ally was a Neverseen Spy, who else was?

One thing was for sure. He couldn't trust anyone. Sophie had been safer in her twelve years hidden and ignorant to her true self that in the one year she had spent with some of the strongest Elves to protect her. He had made up his mind. He wasn't going to send her back to the Lost Cities ignorant and unaware of her abilities. He would return her to her host family. Sure he would need to alter a few memories. And sure he would have to deal with the Elvin Council. They did check up on the human family often. But he could get them to do what he wants. And any other family would run too high of a risk of remembering their old life. No, she would be safest with her human family. Now all he had to do was alter a few minds, send Dex back, and wait for the Council to respond.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hailey: Oh my gosh that is the sweetest thing you could have said that is my dream job thank you!**

 **Keeper: You are all so nice thank you! Here's that chapter**

 **Dex POV**

Dex stumbled when he landed from his light leap, he body weak and his heart weary. His vision blurred with tear and his mind fogged with despair he entered his father's shop. It was the first place that came to mind, well after Havenfield with Sophie on his mind but knowing he would have to face Sophie's almost parents was too much. He missed his dad, the smell of exploding potions and freshly baked desserts. It was time to go home.

As he walked though the back door, since the front was locked, he entered into the familiar peculiar little shop. Through his grief he barely registered the lack of fresh aromas or the lack of light. All he saw was the lone man, hunched over in his desk.

"Dad." He was surprised by how raw his voice was. The man spun around so quickly his chair toppled over. Through the darkness the man squinted to make sure his mind was not playing with him. Then he ran over to embrace his son, returned from the dead, only to catch him as he collapsed from sheer exhaustion.

Before he passed out he could only choke out a mouthful of words, but they were plenty, "Dad, Dad she's gone. Sophie's-Sophie's _dead._ "

…

 **Would you hate me if I ended it here? Don't worry I'm not that cruel.**

 _Dex groaned as light flooded his vision. His head was pounding but it was doing nothing to clear away the grogginess._

 _"_ _Glad you finally came to. I was beginning to worry you were in a coma or something. You kids do like to sleep." The foreign voice caused Dex to jump to his feet, suddenly alert._

 _"_ _Where am I, where's-WHERE"S SOPHIE!" All the past events suddenly came rushing back. Their capture. His being burned. Sophie's scream. He felt sick. She had screamed_ so _much. As he wobbled on his feet he realized that feeling sick might also be because he was, well_ sick.

 _He turned and met the glare of a man. He approached him, every intention of beating the location of his best friend out of the elf, despite the odds. "WHERE IS SHE?"_

 _"_ _Boy lower your fists. If I was here to hurt you I would have left you with them."_

 _He lowered his arms but did not unclench his fists "_ Sophie?"

 _"_ _Dexter, Sophie is dead. I could only rescue you. I was too late for her."_

 _"_ NO." _His world began to spin and his legs suddenly seemed far too weak for his body. He felt himself slipping back into unconsciousness and he welcomed it. Anything was better than here. That this cruel twisted reality. Before he slipped away he felt strong arms wrap around him and lift him to his feet._

 _"_ _Oh no you don't. I have places to be. I need you to get yourself home okay? Don't give in just yet. Hold on, for Sophie's sake. Bring this to Alden. Go now, us this crystal to get home."_

 _Dex tool the wad of paper from the man too numb to ask questions or think rationally. Robotically he leapt home._

….

"Dex? Can you hear me? Honey wake up, please." Dex took a deep breathe before opening his eyes. Once he did he found his mother hovering over him, tears in her eyes, as she pulled him into her arms. Behind her Dex saw his dad, siblings, Grady and Edaline, and…Alden.

"Mom!"

"I know honey your father told me what you said its okay you can take your time." This just made his heart hurt.

"No, Mom. The man who rescued us. He told me to give this," He fished the letter out of his pocket and looked directly at Alden. "To you."

….

 **Alden POV**

After speaking with Dex a little more he left the family to themselves. Once he was home he opened the tiny scroll Dex had handed him. It was a thick parchment wrapped with a tiny black bow. The sign of the swan was in the top right hand corner.

Inside it read:

 _For ten day you have been left to mourning,_

 _One has risen, the other fallen,_

 _At the next rise of sun,_

 _To the grave of the potion maker's son,_

 _Gather the broken crown's in peace,_

 _To discuss that which you all seek_

 **I am no poet but I hope its okay. If you still don't understand after the next chapter I can explain it.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Wow I am so on a roll tonight. Here have another chapter.**

 **Forkle POV**

"So I see you got my note." The entire Council stood before him as well as Alden; each dressed more extravagantly than the last and all of them looking very upset.

Emery was the first to speak. "We do not gather at the summons of a man often. Especially at the summons of a _criminal._ We do not take this lightly. The only reason we came is because kidnapping is even rarer." He looked to Alden, who then began to speak.

"We have done as you asked. Followed all your terms. We are here, gathered in the Wanderling Woods at sunrise as per your request. Now our tolerance is wearing quite thin and while I do not condone violence you _will_ be arrested very soon if you do not tell us what you have done to Sophie." He sighed. The Councilors, for all their wizening years and powerful abilities, were infuriatingly dense at times.

"If I was here to fight I would have gone about it quite differently. For one, none of you would be standing right now." Despite his calm demeanor the elves seemed quite upset by this.

"If you think you can call us here and threaten the most powerful elves-"

"TWO," He cut Bronte off, "I would not have come in person. In reality I have, therefore if you could get you heads out of your butts **(AN: Pardon this, I don't use insults often but I feel that a group full of tense adults who hate each other would be throwing them around a bit)** for long enough to actually _think_ about what's going on around you, you would realize this is _not_ a hostile situation! However if you would like to start an all out war with a force that you have no clue how extensive it is, a force that happens to be trying to be civil at the moment, in a war I can guarantee you would never win due to your appalling lack of preparation, I would certainly not be able to fight back right now seeing as I have brought no back up. _As_ per _our agreement."_ He looked each elf in the eyes and found they seemed to be at the point where he could reason with them.

"Good. Now as I was going to say, I know you are here for Sophie. And soon even without me you would know where she is." He held up his hand seeing Alden begin to protest. "I trust that since you got my note the Dizznee **(AN: Did I spell that right?)** boy has arrived safely and I'm sure he has told you that Sophie is dead. Yes?" 

Alden seemed to grow very sick at this prospect. The Black Swan agent raised his eyebrow, but despite Alden's emotional state he spoke up. "Indeed he has. But I have a feeling you would not have called us here if that were so."

 _Good to know_ someone _here has half a brain._ "Very true. I should begin my story, which is admittedly rather lengthy, by informing you that I am not responsible for the two elf's abduction."

One of the Councilors stepped forward. "That's preposterous! If you didn't you wouldn't be here now!"

"And if you didn't then who did?" Another helpfully supplied.

"Well, see this is where your ignorance really shows itself, isn't it? While you have been off trying to hunt down the Black Swan you have blinded yourself to the truth. The truth that we are not the only rebel group. You have done more damage than you could possibly know and many people are upset with you. However not all are as radical as the Neverseen. Because of this a war amongst our groups has risen due to _conflicting interests._ This is the group that I rescued Sophie and Dexter from while you were all sitting on your bums mourning the loss of two very alive but admittedly unwell children."

To say they were shocked would have been an understatement. Anger, shock, disbelief, suspicion, were all very present. But he had expected no less. What he had not suspected was the amount of people who seemingly believed him. Nearly half of the Council as well as Alden had not immediately shut down the prospect of a rival rebel group. Perhaps they were not all as frustratingly stubborn as he had initially thought.

Again something he had not suspected was the total silence at him information. He had expected out bursts, yelling. Prepared for it even. Not this. He found his answer when he saw Emery. His eyes were shut tight and he rubbed his forehead. Channeling a conversation between so many must cause quite the head ache.

Oralie walked up to him; hesitantly she lifted her hand, "May I?"

"Of course, I have little to hide." She placed her delicate hand on his shoulder and concentrated on his emotions.

"He tells the truth. Not a trace of a lie anywhere." She walked back to the others, not taking her gaze never wavering from his.

After what seem like an eternity the telepath opened his eyes. "I speak on behalf of the entire Council when I say this. We have thoroughly though over your _story_ and while many are skeptical to say the least, we will give you the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Explain yourself. We will listen."

He nodded he head slightly toward the man. "Thank you. So to start from the beginning I suppose. I have long suspected the Neverseen of trying to hijack our Moonlaark operations. For this reason more than to keep her from you we made the decision to hide Sophie with the humans. She was created with a specific purpose and we could not endanger her before she was ready."

"And what is this _purpose_ you intend for a 13 year old child!?" Alden said, his jaw clenched.

"Intend. Present tense. And not for a child. She is not ready yet. And none of you could possibly comprehend that purpose at the moment so my I get on with my story?" Alden looked like he wanted to protest, but, knowing what happened to Sophie was more pressing.

"As I was saying, we had always suspected the Neverseen would pull a stunt like this so when I heard Sophie and Dexter pronounced dead I had my suspicions. It took me ten days to find where they were hiding out. I got the two of them away, but I was too late.

"Don't worry she's not dead, Sophie is very much alive. She is just, _indisposed_ at the moment."

"If she is alive why was she not sent back with Dex? Why would he think she was dead?" Kenrik inquired.

"He thinks she is dead because I told him so." He said simply. "And I would like it to stay that way if you don't mind. You see, when I recovered Sophie her physical state was atrocious. Upon first glace I feared she was dead. But that does not compare to what I found inside." He paused looked at each elf, hoping he was doing the right thing by telling them. "All her memories of the Elvin world have been erased. Her abilities blocked."

"But that's impossible! No elf has ever blocked a present ability nor has any elf yet passed Sophie's blocking!" Emery seemed to have voiced what all the other's were currently thinking.

"I am aware. But do you not think when I created her mind to be impenetrable I would have made a way for me to get in? Do you not think I would have trusted this information with my closest ally whom in I have placed all my trust? And if this ally was so strong it is not unfathomable that he would be able to block an ability he helped emerge in a mind he has already see. Furthermore, if this ally would betray me so, do you not understand why I come here, in the cover of seclusion and alone to speak with you?" He let out a long, weary sigh.

"Black Swan agents are every where you would not expect and no where you would. The sheer amount of us is overwhelming even to me. If I cannot trust them it is up to me to protect Sophie until she is ready. But I cannot do that here. As far as the world, including the Black Swan and, due to some creative work on my part, the Neverseen as well are concerned Sophie is dead. If you value her life, it would do well to keep it that way."

Terik looked to him with furrowed brows. "You tell us this but you have still not explained where the girl is."

"That is why you may already know. With her blind to her abilities and unable to protect herself I have put her back with her human host family. The Neverseen never bothered to find where they live or else they would be dead already so I know her location is still secret. She was safer in her time as a human than she ever was in the Lost Cities. In this vulnerable of a state she needs somewhere safe. I had watched over her her whole life and since she did not recognize me without my usual _precautions_ my identity is still in tact."

Alden seemed to understand where he was going. "What you are proposing, that we endanger the entire Elvin race because you think you can protect Sophie better than us is mad. What reason have you given us to trust you? And what would we tell her family and friends? That she is dead while she lives with humans in the care of a criminal?" They were harsh words but he said them with no malice.

"You will tell them the truth. Sophie is dead. The Sophie that knew and loved them is gone. As far as trusting me, I give you one reason to trust me. I care about Sophie. I watched her grow up; I was always there when she needed me. I am telling the truth. When I found her, her wrists were so raw from burns my potions could not heal her completely. She had scars from her wrist to her elbow. She had a cut from a blow to her head so server an inch deeper and she would have had brain damage not from a memory wipe. From what I can tell she did not eat once in the ten days she was their captive. They plan to torture her into becoming their weapon of mass destruction. This is the reason you should trust me. Whatever you think of me can never amount to the sheer horror of her captors. And I hope to God she never remembers what happened these past few days because if she does, the happy, sweet, innocent, young child she is will very well be lost."

"Is this true?" Alden whispered.

"I wish it was not. I have taken care of implanting memories to account for the scars and their new home. She will be taking the new last name of her host family. She is safe there. That is what matters is it not?"

The councilors looked at one another, partaking in a silent conversation. Emery spoke up, his trust in the rebel begrudging, "Sophie will be staying hidden in the Forbidden cities indefinitely until the threat on her life is resolved. No one-no one outside of this congregation is to know of her life or whereabouts. Consequently, the routine visits to the human family will cease immediately. However, Alden will be checking on her often, for her health, the validity of your claims, your behavior, and her mental stability. If her abilities begin to show we will reevaluate this decision." He sighed, "I hope you know this does not change your status as a criminal. Under any other circumstances I would have you arrested. However, this meeting is off the record so I am not obliged to do so."

"Then we are done here. I trust we will meet again. Lord Alden, shall I be seeing you soon?"

"Most definitely." He smiled at that. You had to give it to him; the man was fiercely protective of those close to him.

As he pulled out his pathfinder he heard Terik warn him, "Do not think this means we find your life worth more than any other criminal lowlife. We do not trust or value you. We simply value Sophie's more than we want you in prison at this very moment. Do not begin to feel safe. Do not wrongly assume you are among allies tonight."

"Oh I would never dream of it. I did become a rebel for a reason." With that he leapt away, knowing the difficulties had only just begun.

 **Oh my bejesus this was a long chapter. Hope you liked it the next one is Sophie's POV. Yay!**


	6. Chapter 6

**So I think in the last chapter I said they would be staying in their home but I couldn't figure out where that was or how to work it. Plus I've never lived in California (which I think they still are) so I decided that Mr. Forkle moved them to Connecticut so they would be far away from memory triggers. Sorry about that.**

 **Special shout out to for being my very first fav. story. You are one awesome person. (:**

 **Saraoh781: Thank you! Here's the update**

 **ForeverFreeFall: OH MY GOODNESS THAT WORD IS AWESOME I LOVE FAKE WORDS! Like Fantabulous and pinkurple and and the best fake word ever created: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!**

 **:** **Thank you! And Yes I will. It may be a couple of chapters from now but when they find Sophie it will switch POVs**.

 **Sophie POV**

 _BEEP BEEP BEEP._ Sophie groaned. Her alarm had been going off for so long it was starting to sound like it was yelling at her. _Get your lazy butt out of bed. BEEP. You have a life today. BEEP._ The problem was her alarm was on the other side of her room. She had done that specifically so she would not sleep through turning off her alarm. But she had found a flaw. Through her sleep ridden eyes, the floor strongly resembled a bed. **(AN: This is what I do every school day morning. Once I fell out of bed and went back to sleep on the ground with my alarm blaring at 5 a.m.)** So she reasoned that if she was just going to fall back asleep in a less comfortable place, she might as well stay in bed.

It was a good plan. That is, until her pesky little sister barged in. Light from the house of the living flooded in and Sophie buried her head under her blankets. "DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG YOUR ALARM HAS BEEN GOING OFF?" She ripped off Sophie's blankets. "TWELVE MINUTES! TWELEVE FREAKING MINUTES! IT WOKE ME UP HALF AN HOUR BEFORE I NEEDED TO BE UP!"

Sophie responded by curling tightly into a ball trying to preserve her warmth. "Givememblnket."

"You get them back tonight. After you are so miserable that you feel my pain!"

She stormed out and Sophie threw her pillow, hitting her ten year old sister on the head. "Parasite!"

"Troll!"

"Ugh! Gremlin!"

"There the same thing! And what kind of insult is gremlin?" She sneered.

"A perfect one to describe you!" Her sister stormed out screaming. Sophie went to lie back down only to find she had thrown her pillow across the room. With a huff she rolled out of bed. After crawling across her floor she turned off her alarm and trudged out to get ready for the day.

The house was two stories tall. Both the girl's bedrooms and bathrooms were upstairs with a living room area between. The area they called their girl cave was all sky blue walls with large flowers their mom had painted along with a dark purple accent wall that housed the bay window seat. The entire room consisted of white shag rugs, giant bean bags, couches, and enough throw pillows to make a bed while watching their TV. Downstairs was the master room and the rest of the house. But that was not was not what made this house special. No, what made it more beautiful than any other house she had lived in was the location.

The neighbor hood they lived in was literally built onto a mountain. There were levels. The first few houses on the regular level then you drove up a hill to the next level. Their house was at the top with four acres of fenced yard. Surrounding their neighborhood was a large forested area and a reservoir. It was perfect. **(AN: I actually just described the place I lived when I lived in New York.)**

After she had showered Sophie stood in her robe trying to decide what to wear for her second first day as a high school Senior. Though she was a senior the last year, so much had happened, the wildfires, her injury, and the move that they had decided to have her retake her senior year in Connecticut. Finally she decided on a white long sleeved sweater and dark boot cut jeans with her cowboy boots. She put her hair up into a messy bun and put on a light brown leather jacket and, after making sure her scars weren't showing, went down stairs for breakfast.

As she entered the kitchen she smelled the delicious aroma of pancakes and bacon. "Oh my goodness fooooooood." As she reached out for what she intended to be a handful of bacony goodness her mom handed Sophie her book bag instead.

"Eat on your way to school, it's a long walk and if you don't leave now you'll be late."

She groaned, "Do I have to walk?"

"Yes, sweetheart. Your father has work and I need to bring your sister to her school out in town. It's only a little while. You remember where it is right?"

"Yes, Mom. Just walk down the mountain, to the creek, over the mini bridge and follow the path. Its not hard." Her mom looked like she wanted to follow her there but settled for a peck on her cheek saying to be careful and have a good first day.

"Conner say goodbye to your daughter!" From upstairs Sophie hear he dad shout for his little Soybean to have a good day.

"Bye Mom. Love you." She shoved a pancake and bacon into her mouth and walked out the house into the crisp august air.

….

Outside the grass was all coated in morning dew, making it look like a light snow had fallen over night. While walking down the steep hill, although it was paved, Sophie still began to regret her choice in shoes. It was not now she was worried about but the walk _back_ home that she dreaded.

By the time she was at the bottom of the mountain it was 7 30. She had 20 minutes to get to class. The Sun was still rising leaving it a shade of pink that not even Sophie's blush would reach, mixed with an orange more orange than rainbow sherbet orange. These sunrise colors sure did know how to color. It was all made more beautiful by its brilliant colors reflecting on the perfectly still pond. ( **AN: just so you know this is not the reservoir that is on the other side of the mountain this is just a small pond)**

"Enchanting isn't it?" Sophie spun around to see a high school age boy leaning on the other side of the bridge.

After calming down from her original surprise she found her heart was racing for an entirely different reason. "It is. Where I used to live everything was flat and hot. The horizon was buildings not mountains." He smiled at her, a dazzling smile.

"Lucas Shuster. But my friends call my Luc."

"Sophie Freeman. My friends all call me Sophie." She looked at him then, really looked. He was quite taller than her, probably just less than 6 ft. He had wavy, dark brown hair that fell a little past his ears so he had to push it out of his eyes. He worked out she could tell, but he wasn't too large, he was lean and toned, with an olive skin tone.

"It must be different here then. A good change I hope?" She looked at him and for a moment, when she looked into his sea green eye an image of a different boy's teal eye's and movie star smile flashed in her mind but just as soon it was gone. _Strange._

"Yeah. I'm on my way to the high school. You too I presume?" they started to walk down the path together.

"Sophomore year. Only three more in this hell hole. Freshman?" She shook her head.

"Actually I'm a senior." He stopped his eyes wide.

"Wait. How old are you?"

"Thirteen. I skipped a few years." She blushed as Luc's laughed

"Incredible." He gave he a puzzled smile and they finished their walk in a silence not uncomfortable, but peaceful. Before long they were at the school.

"Well I guess this is it miss senior. Until lunch, where we will inevitably end up sitting together, I bid you farewell." He bowed dramatically while Sophie giggles at his antics.

"See you then." As she walked to her first class, she couldn't help but think this wouldn't be so bad.

…..

After school Sophie said bye to Luc and went to the bookstore down the street from the school. All day she had the feeling she was being watched but every time she checked she saw nothing so she had decided to go somewhere she knew she would feel at peace.

Once she had gotten inside she immediately felt at ease. She put her bag down and began to browse looking for a good book. "Hi excuse me?" Sophie turned and saw a tall man, the most attractive man his age she had seen, kind eyes that reminded Sophie of the boy she had seen flash in her mind earlier. "Sorry it's just, I have a daughter your age and I can't figure out what book to get her. Any recommendations?" The way he spoke, carefully and slightly pained, as if he had to be careful of how he spoke to her was strange but he seemed too nice to have ulterior motives.

"Sure. I mean, I've read so many. An entire wall in my room is just bookshelves. What is she interested in?"

He ran his hand through his hair. A nervous habit? "Well she does love romance." He smirked. "Any fantasy, elves, that sort of thing seems to interest her."

"Oh I know just the thing! The tryelle series by Amada Hocking! They are amazing. Oh or the Fault in our Stars by John Green. It's not fantasy but it is so tragically romantic and I just adore the way he writes. You know how people just have a tone to their writing? Or anything from Rick Riordan. Or Hush Hush. **(These are all real books and they are amazing. Credit to the authors.)** She had been handing him all the books so he now hand a stack. But she needed to add one more. "I know! The perfect book for her! It is so romantic and the author is perfect and-oh- the fantasy plot is so-here." She handed him Let The Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger. **(AN: eheheheheh)**

Sophie saw how excited she has gotten and blushed. "Sorry. I got carried away."

But he just smiled. "No need to worry. Thank you. I am sure she will love these. Good bye Sop-sometime you may want to look into the Lord of the Rings." He smiled to himself, "I hear the take on elves is quite interesting." She wave goodbye. For a moment she swore he was going to say her name, but that's crazy. She never introduced herself.

…

 **Alden POV**

He sat down with a heavy sigh, a bag of human books next to him. He had been telling the truth. Sophie really didn't remember. And worse, he had been telling the truth about her scars. While Sophie had been pickup a book her sleeve fell just enough for him to see it peaking out. She had gotten them after he had pronounced her dead. He ran a hand through him hair when Fitz walked in looking terrible.

"Dad, I need to talk to you." His sounded like he had been crying and from his bloodshot eye it looked like he had.

"Come in." He kicked the bag under his desk.

"Something doesn't add up." He sat down across from his father looking frazzled. "Why would Dex come back, why would he be okay and not Sophie? I mean he only said she was dead at the word of a faceless man. She could be hurt right now and we wouldn't know. Keefe and I were talking and we were wrong about it before how do we know-"

"Stop. Sophie is gone. I want you to stop investigating this right now. Understand?"

But-"

" _Understand?"_

"Yeah. Sorry."

"I'm sorry Fitz. I-there's no need to worry. Alright?"

""Yeah, whatever." He couldn't blame Fitz for not believing him. He didn't either.


	7. Chapter 7

**IMPORTANT**

 **PLEASE READ THIS**

 **(I apologize in advanced for the long note)**

 **So I need your help. I want to add a ship to this but I'm still contemplating how I want it to play out but either way I need help. If I'm writing romance I will need feedback! I am not entirely experienced in that category so I will need help writing it in a realistic way. Thanks a bunch!**

 **Pen .edge (For some reason your name wouldn't show up last time I don't know what happened. Sorry about that) Shout out for being my first follower! Thank you sooooo much!**

 **Saraoh781: Yay! My second fav. Story! Thank you so much!**

 **Hailey: Guess you'll have to wait and see. (maniacal laugh) No, but seriously I can't say or it will like, spoil the plot but I hope I don't disappoint.**

 **ForeverFreeFall: Omigosh I've never had a self-proclaimed biggest fan before! Thank you so much I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Pen .edge: Well like I said I don't know who I'm pairing her with yet. You can always comment and I will think about who would fit better with her in this particular story. But I want to make sure they fit.**

 **Keeper: That totally makes sense. I mean, I know it sound bad, but I really like when there is imminent danger or a tragedy in a story. It shows people's true colours and what lengths they will go to for each other or how much it affects them. But you know, add** ** _some_** **hope to it so its not super depressing. I hope I'm doing an okay job of capturing that sentiment. And thank you!**

 **Okay *Huge sigh* I think that's it. *clears throat* TO THE STORY!**

 **Dex POV:**

He had been back for a week now but everything still felt _wrong._ It was quarter to six in the morning but it dint matter. He hadn't had a good night's sleep in days. That was the least of his problems though. It wasn't just that Sophie was gone, though that was a large part of it. Everything had a certain _offness_ to it, like coming home and all your furniture had been moved a few inches. Nothing visible on the surface but completely wrong.

Part of it was the stares. The whispers, and this time they weren't about his parent's bad match or strange family. It was the little things. Like how his whole family was so careful around him now. It was Grady and Edaline back into seclusion. It was his tree in the Wanderling Woods. It was the little scar on his side or the more pronounced ribs on his chest. It was the sympathy. It was the fear. But worst of all, it was the absence of his best friend, who he would normally be here to talk about all this to.

It was strange, how in less than a year Sophie had become such a pivotal part of his life. He was perfectly fine before she had arrived, but in a matter of months he had grown incapable of imagining a life without her. But now he had to. And it wasn't fair. If his world was a machine, it was now missing a crucial piece. How was he supposed to function?

It just didn't feel right. He thought back to when his rescuer told his Sophie was dead. Not missing. _Dead._ If that was how everyone had felt for nearly two weeks he owed them an apology, because no one deserved to feel like that. But he had been hurt and confused. He would have believed it if he was told his arm had been cut off and the sky was green then. Now he had questions, and no one to ask. Maybe it was denial. Maybe he was desperate or just plain crazy. But it didn't feel like Sophie was dead. He would know. He would feel it. Wouldn't he?

His wondering was cut short when Keefe suddenly appeared in his room. Add that to the list of things off. For once he looked completely serious. "I need to talk to you."

He scowled but sighed. He didn't have the energy to fight. "At six in the morning? What about?" But he was pretty sure he knew what.

"Not here. I have a couple other stops to make. Come with me?" He thought about protesting but honestly he was curious. He nodded.

"Where are we going?"

Keefe grinned and grabbed Dex so he couldn't pull away, "Everglen."

….

 **Keefe POV**

Sheesh he has some stubborn friends. Seriously, not one of them could say they weren't suspicious just a little about everyone's story about Sophie just dying. It was crap. But everyone else was content to sit at home crying over someone they all unanimously agreed might be alive. They were going to trust the council who was known for keeping secrets from them. And for being a real rule-enforcing pain. But mostly for being a secretive and stuff.

Of course he was upset about Sophie. He was devastated. Before her, he felt like he had to pretend everything was fine at home and that he was a goofy player. Around Sophie, he always felt like he could be himself. Flaws and all. He could be vulnerable without feeling shameful. He could've bared his soul to her and she wouldn't have judged him. With his parents, that was new for him.

And he missed her. Like, _really missed_ her. More than he knew you could miss someone. This was why if there was any way in heaven or hell that he could get her back he was going to and if he had drag his lovesick and mourning friends out to help him he would. So he did. Just then in fact.

He grinned at them: Dex, Bianna, and Fitz. They didn't seem as enthusiastic as he was. Actually, Bianna looked ready to throttle him. That might have had something to do with him gathering them all in her room at six a.m. Before she was awake. In the dark. But _details._ They had to meet _somewhere._ And Fitz had trashed his room again.

Keefe looked at Dex, who looked like he had bruises under his eyes. Fitz, whose knuckles were scabbed from hitting so many walls and refusing to heal them, Bianna, who hadn't bothered with her hair or makeup or possibly even showering since Sophie disappeared, the usual light in her eyes dull and weak. Well, that part might have been her just waking up, but either way they were pathetic. _Do I look like that?_ He asked himself. _Probably. You've been a wreak._ The voice in his head answered. 

_You need to stay strong for them. Be the goofy friend you always are. They need that._ The voice told him. _But…I'm doing about as well as they are. Then don't let them see that._ He shook his head. Was he really having and internal battle right now? His voice of wisdom was right though. He cleared his throat and, in his best impersonation of Dame Alina he said, "I suppose you are wondering why I have gathered you all here?"

"More like why _now."_ Bianna grumbled.

"And in the dark." Dex added.

"Precisely!" He shouted in his own voice. "We have gathered here, in the early hours hidden in the cover of darkness for secrecy my friends!"

Fitz raised his eyebrow. "Secrecy?"

Bianna scrunched her tiny little nose. "Why do we need to talk secretly?" Keefe rolled his eyes.

"Because we're going to spy. Secretly. Without our elder's knowledge. Possibly break the law! Rescue Sophie!" He looked at their blank faces and sighed. "We all know something fishy is going on. Don't deny it. What could it hurt? We were already told she's dead."

"…Keefe, I don't want her to be gone either but… I trust my dad. Maybe we are all grasping at some fantasy because we don't want to accept that she's really gone." Fitz seemed sure but Dex just frowned. Bianna did nothing.

"You think I don't know that? I wasn't about to place all my hopes on some fishy 'she's dead'. So I asked some questions. Tested their answers. I can tell you, those older elves are good at watching what they say but there was something off about their answers. Your dad for instance. They are hiding something about her and we are going to figure it out."

For a brief moment they all sat in silence. The Dex surprised all of them. "I'm in."

"Wait really? I thought we were going to have to beg you to work with them."

"Well by all mean feel free to do that but something has felt wrong about it since I got back. If she's out there, I want to help find her."

Bianna looked up, a spark of hope returning to her eyes. "You-you really think there's a way she may not be gone?"

He nodded, "I do."

She took a deep breath, "Then count me in."

They all turned to Fitz. "If Sophie's out there somewhere then we're going to find her. Together."


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm so sorry Keefsters I'm-I'm just sorry.**

 **Oh! And I wanted to say the other day I read Keefster by AmaterasuOfTheSun and it was sooo good. It needs more love. Ya'll should go read it after you finish this one.**

 **Forkle POV**

He had been working tirelessly since relocation Sophie to find the leaks in the Black Swan to no avail. He had no idea who was a traitor and who was loyal. He had no idea how deep the Neverseen's influence was. He silently scolded himself for letting it get this far.

There was only one other option and it was drastic even for him. But he had no other choice. He needed to be able to trust his own men. But to do that he had to face his biggest failure. His greatest regret. He never meant for it to happen and he kept his own sanity by believing they could someday fix it. Fix _him._

It had taken an excruciatingly long amount of time to sneak his dwarfs in, even longer to get the necessary items. But he had. He was there. He had weathered a hard journey to get there but it had worked. He had broken into Exile. And now he stood in front of him. His ally. His friend. The man who had sacrificed himself for their cause. Prentice. "Hello old friend."

He sat down next to the mad man. "I am truly sorry for this. I _will_ make it better. But for now I must ask more of you. The night you were arrested you hailed me. You said you had discovered something world changing. Well I'm afraid so have I. Prentice, we have traitors in our midst and I think you know who. Quinlin is a traitor and he preformed your break, I fear this is no coincidence for there is no such thing. I must search your mind for answers. I'm sorry." He paused "For everything."

Then he entered his broken mind.

…..

Prentice's mind was harder to navigate than he had ever imagined. And he had, many times. It had taken him far too long to get to the man's center but he finally arrived. But once he was there he could make the memories a bit clearer but not much. He did not have Sophie's gift.

All the memories he could find were strange and distorted but they were intact. He walked up to a warped version of Eternalia, as saw himself. Prentice was speaking to him, or rather the memory of him. "This is not what I had in mind when I said I would help you."

"You think I like this? Creating a life with a purpose? But that purpose is to save lives! No living elf is strong enough to do what is necessary!"

Prentice shook his head. "Is that how you will explain it to the child when it is born? I have a son; I cannot father another child and just-just abandon it! And to live with the humans? It has a small chance of surviving your altering but to grow up in fear and isolation? That is cruel, even for you."

"What do you want me to do Prentice? Leave the world to die?"

"Of course not! But find another way to save it! Or at least pick a different man to help you! One who is willing to abandon their child!"

"We have discussed this you and Gisela are the best match for this. The possibility for survival would be much better than anyone else. Originally we intended for Jolie to be the mother, but that is no longer possible."

Prentice sighed. A long, drawn out and weary sigh. "She has a son as well, correct?"

"Yes, with Cassius. Keefe, I believe is his name. Only a few months old."

"And yet she is willing to do this?"

"She understands what's at stake. She volunteered."

"On one condition." He nodded, "If this child is born, it will not be told of its roll until it is necessary. Let it live a normal life with a good family. And…let me help protect it."

"It would be unwise to attach yourself to this child, Prentice. It is on a course to a hard and dangerous life."

"I will not let my paternal emotions get in the way but if this is my child, even if I don't raise it, I _will_ protect it."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes."

He walked away from that memory and after wadding through many useless memories he finally found the one he was looking for.

"Hello, Prentice." Lady Gisela greeted Prentice coldly.

"Drop the act Gisela. I have been investigating some, _abnormalities_ in our records. All of them pointing to you."

"Ah. I see. What is it that you know?"

"It's not what I know. It's what you've told them. How could you? You've betrayed the cause! You've betrayed all of us!" She walked up to him and brushed her hand across his cheek. Then she whipped her hand hitting him across the face with her ring, causing a bloody dent in his cheek. He stumbled and hit his head, and lay on the floor dazed and unmoving.

"True." She sighed, "I have _betrayed_ you. But to be fair, I was never on your side in the first place." She laughed then, one short and ugly laugh, "In fact, you don't know how few of you there are who are actually loyal. You see, we are like a parasite, infiltrating your ranks, gaining your trust, only to become stronger than our host."

"How many?" He coughed out, trying to sit up, "How many of you are there?"

She sneered," About half. Even Quinlin is with us. Oh, does that surprise you? Just wait until you find out whom else."

"But, Sophie. What about her? Would you kill your own child?"

"If I have to. But don't worry; I have bigger plans for her. And she would never betray her own mother now would she?"

He laughed, "But you know nothing of her. The only person other than Forkle who knows where she is would be me and I will never tell you."

"We'll see about that. Right now a couple goblin guards are on there way to your house. It seems some one told them you were a keeper for the Black Swan. You might want to hurry home, I wouldn't want them to get mad at your pretty little wife or son."

" _No."_ He stumbled up and looked like he wanted to finish their fight but was too worried for his family. "This is far from over."

"Oh don't worry, we'll be seeing each other soon. Oh, and prentice? I would be forthcoming with the information if I were you. I would hate for your wife to have an accident and not have her husband there to save her"

He stumbled away from the memory. This was far worse than he could have ever imagined. Half of his own people, one being Sophie's genetic mother. He had no choice; he was going to have to break into his people's minds until he weeded out the traitors. One by one he would destroy the Neverseen spies.

 **So I kind of just sat there and laughed/cried for five minutes while I wrote this. I mean, I just sank my own ship. Not just sank but like, titaniced it. Sorry not sorry. Every one loves a good plot twist. Just a friendly reminder, they don't know this yet. Mwhahahahahaha. Oh and on top of that did I just say his wife was murdered? I did. Have fun with that. I just have to say I have been waiting since I read the first book to write this and I feel this weird mix of feeling bad for the poor characters and really happy seeing it written. SO…please don't hate me.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sophie POV**

Luc threw his arm around Sophie's shoulder and pulled her close as they walked in the woods. After a month they had grown quite close and the woods had become their special place. Well, more like the woods was the path to their special place. Their place was the reservoir. They would walk there together and sit with their legs dangling over the edge; they would talk and laugh or just hang out together away from the bustle of society. It was where he taught her how to fish. Where they ate her failed attempt at cookies. She spit hers out right away but Luc finished his saying they could tweak her recipe later. Turns out she wasn't much of a chef. She felt at home there.

Sophie felt Luc turn his head so his lips brushed against her ear, she blushed but all he said was, "Race ya." And he took off to the reservoir.

"No fair! You got a head start!" She laughed and chased after him. When she caught up to him he reached out and grabbed her before she ran off the edge.

"Whoa there, might want to slow down just a bit." But they were both laughing.

"So not fair, your legs are freakishly long and you got a head start. I demand a rematch."

"You're on. On our way back we will race till our hearts' content. Cool?"

"I suppose it will have to suffice." She said dramatically but she couldn't keep a straight face.

"Come here you." He smirked and she started to run away but he threw her over his shoulder, "We can't have my best friend falling down a reservoir now can we? And you are way too clumsy to be trusted to walk on your own." She was laughing but then she flashed to herself with a boy, his eyes periwinkle blue and the most adorable dimples ever. _"You're my best friend Dex."_ She shook her head. She had no idea how to explain what she had seen. As soon as she thought that she forgot what she had been thinking about.

But she had no way to explain why two boys around her age had just appeared a few yards away. Nor could she explain why one came storming up to them and punched Luc in the face while the taller one grabbed her away from Luc.

…..

 **Fitz POV**

Three weeks. That's how long it had taken them to get a lead on where Sophie was. At this point they all agreed she wasn't dead. What had proven it to him was when they searched for her in a spy ball and it said restricted. Not unfound. It meant the council was hiding something about her and they finally had a way to find out. But knowing she could be alive was not enough to actually find her. They needed information for that. Information that Alden had. And they intended to get it.

Two weeks ago Bianna hide an untraceable recording device Dex had built to get information in Alden's office. They had almost given up when she heard he was leaving on a trip the Forbidden Cities. A couple of hours from then.

They were getting ready to follow him. Dex had hacked Alden's pendant so they would know where he was going. He had gotten the idea from when Sophie had gotten hers. She had been a bit spooked knowing people could know wherever you are. Turns out she was right to be spooked. The irony.

"You guys ready?" Fitz looked at their small group. They were breaking the law, going against the council and against family. But they couldn't turn back. This was for Sophie. They had all seen just how well they did without her. It was time for her to come home.

"Yep. Let's go stalk your dad and rescue Sophie!" He couldn't help but think that was premature. That if Alden really was going to see Sophie and that was a _huge_ if, then it wasn't like she would need rescuing. But he didn't say that.

"Ok your dad just left. He's someplace called Connecticut in the Untied States." Dex looked up from his device. "Any one heard of it?"

Fitz nodded, "Yeah it's in the same country where I found Sophie. Completely different side, but the same country."

"Well then let's go." Keefe pulled out his pathfinder but Bianna grabbed his hand.

"Wait, we can't all go. We would be too conspicuous. Did any of you boys even consider that we won't exactly blend in with the humans? Plus, if we are planning to follow my dad then the fewer people the better."

"She's right." Fitz ran a hand through his hair. "We'll have to split up. Two and two."

"Okay then two can follow and two can monitor their progress on the device. We can keep the imparter on so we all know what to do." Dex handed Bianna the device. "Fitz and I can go and you two can monitor from here. If anything goes wrong you can come get us."

"Wait why should I stay? I want to go!" Keefe seemed rather frustrated by this.

"Yeah! I can help!"

"No he's right. I have experience in the forbidden cities and Dex's gift for technology may come in handy. It'll work." Neither of them looked happy about it but they eventually agreed insisting they will come if they find Sophie.

…

Fitz had forgotten how bad human thoughts were. He needed a minute to block them all out. Dex waited impatiently nearby, pretending not to care that his companion was in a massive amount of pain. He never did know why Dex hated him so much.

After they followed Alden for a while he entered a large, depressing building. "Is that a prison or something?" Dex asked.

"Something like that. They call it high school." They were about to follow him into the building but he walked out and leapt away.

"Guys, where is he?" Dex asked through the imparter.

"He's back at home. Actually I think I hear him downstairs."

"Why did you find her?" Keefe's face suddenly appeared next to Bianna. He saw how frustrated she was and winked. "So, where's Foster?"

"We're…not sure. He just left what they call a high school." Fitz scanned the area and then a painfully loud shill bell rang and suddenly there were hundreds of human teenagers pouring out of the school. "Oh. My. God. Look at them all. We're gonna die." Fitz shook his head and dragged Dex into the nearby woods.

"Calm down. If Sophie's in there somewhere we need to get her out. Okay?"

"Right, but do you happen to know how we are supposed to track down Sophie in all this." He gestured towards the massive crowd of teenage humans. For a moment he was mesmerized by how _different_ they all were. He had forgotten since the last time he had been in the Forbidden Cities how much variety there was for the human body. Some looked like elves while others had acne ridden faces or glasses or were plump. It was very strange. Then, in the corner of his eye he saw a flash of blonde hair and brown eyes.

His head whipped around so fast he worried he gave himself whiplash. He panicked when he lost her in the crowd but then he saw her. It was _her._ And some punk human had his arm around her. He took off running with Dex in a tow.

As he was pushing through the crowd, running after her, one thought was on repeat in his mind like a broken record. _She's really alive. Sophie's okay. Soon she'll be back in my arms._ He was grinning now because Sophie was okay.

But that grin fell away a soon as they caught up to her. The human had her over his shoulder as she was screaming. Dex seemed to have the same thought as he did. Someone was trying to hurt her again and they weren't about to let her. He ran up to their startled faces and ripped Sophie away from the guy trying to kidnap her while Dex sucker punched him. _For a guy so short he sure could pack a punch._ "What the hell man! Sophie are you okay-put her down!" Dex responded by kicking him in the groin. Fitz ignored him.

Fitz held Sophie in his arms bridal style as he inspected her, drank up the sight of her alive as though he had been starved while he made sure she wasn't hurt. _If he hurt her I will kill him._ "Sophie you have no idea how worried I've been. We thought you were dead and I-I'm just so glad that you're okay." He was about to push up her long sleeves to check for bruises when she jumped out of his arms.

"What do you think you're doing? Get off of me! Luc are you okay! Leave him alone!" She rushed to where he stood about to start fighting Dex back. The human put his arm around Sophie protectively then before throwing them a threatening glare looked to Sophie, and inspected her in a similar way to how Fitz just had. As if he would _ever_ hurt her. The thought made him want to scream.

"I'm fine, just trying to keep myself from killing this kid. Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?" She shook her head and he gently pushed her behind him. "If you two want to fight then fine, your funeral, but leave her out of this."

He was so confused. Sophie was looking at him like he was a stranger. Before he could speak Dex said what was on both their minds. "What do you mean you were the one hurting her? Sophie what's going on? I-I thought you would be happy to see me."

"I'm sorry you must be confused. This is Lucas my best friend. We were just messing around. I mean, thank I guess for trying to help."

"What do you mean your best friend? I'm your best friend!" Dex looked about ready to cry.

"Funny Sophie's never mentioned you two." The guy, _Lucas,_ still looked suspicious as he shielded Sophie.

"That's because I don't know them. I think you guys are confused I mean, you look kind of familiar." She trailed of then jumped as if she had been shocked, "Wait! I met you at the museum in San Diego right? You asked about my picture in the magazine. Fitz right?" Fitz suddenly understood why his dad had kept this from him. He wanted to cry, to scream, to make her remember but he couldn't. Dex seemed to understand but didn't want to admit it. "Um, yeah. Yeah I think I remember you. I was visiting family." The words felt like poison in his mouth. But it felt like a poison blade in his heart when she nodded, oblivious to knowing him in any other way.

"No but you-you're Sophie. Sophie Foster my best friend!" Dex was about to break down.

"Sorry. Wrong Sophie. It's Sophie Freeman."

Lucas look at Dex with surprising concern considering he had just punched him, "You alright mate? You look kind of sick."

"I'm fine, we-we're fine. Sorry about the, you know, I-we should go. Come on Fitz."

"I hope you find your Sophie. She must be really great for you guys to care so much. Good luck." She looked at him, and his heart broke a little bit more.

"I hope so too. We all really miss her. I-I care about her too much for her to be gone." But she was. His Sophie was gone and he had no idea how to get her back.


	10. Chapter 10

**Before any of you read the story I want you to know writing Keefe as her brother was hard for me but it seemed to fit. I mean seriously, Gisela is a truly HORRIBLE person. When I looked back, in** ** _this particular_** **story Keefe and Sophie have not shown much chemistry anyways. I KNOW I ship them too, but it just didn't fit the way this story was playing out. SO, SORRY. To make up for it I will be sure to make my next story super duper Team Foster-Keefe. Maybe just a bunch of Kophie shenanigans. I will start pondering this now.**

 **Secondly, this chapter will be a bit calmer so you guys can have a bit of recovery before the drama and tear-your-hair-out-screaming moments come back.**

 **Saraoh781: Meh, I'm cool if people think I'm crazy. It would mean I would be up there with some of the best. Thank you again.**

 **Hailey: I'M SO GLAD. I never thought my writing could have such effects on people. Thank you!**

 **ForeverFreeFall: I am sorry for the emotional trauma I seem to have caused. I was really upset about that but yes; the Kophie ship has sunk so deep it has fallen into the depths of the ocean's uncharted abyss. But…it's still really flattering that people are so invested in this story, so thank you.**

 **Keeper:** **J** **(looky at the cool smiley face I made!) I know right? It makes me smile.**

 **A(n) Angry Keeper: That's a plot twist for ya. All I can say is sorry, (not totally sorry). But thank you for caring so much. I hope I can redeem myself.**

 **Keeper: (Hi again) I know I am a cruel and evil person. But what is a story without a little emotional breakdown moment. Don't worry it will get better for the guys…maaayybee. (hehe) Though I hope it get better for them too.**

 **Guest: Yay a fellow Keefester has reviewed! No I really do ship them! It just didn't work out in this story. But if you think you're sad now wait until they find out.**

 **Pen .edge: I feel the same way, its crazy! But thank you so much! No reason at all to apologize I think it is the coolest thing that you are a regular reviewer. It is SO AWESOME! Thank you again!**

 **Springgirl: Thank you! And OH MY GOSH I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF THAT I MEAN I HAVE PLANS FOR LUC BUT THAT IS SUCH A COOL THEORY KUDOS TO YOU FOR THAT! The only problem would be that Luc kinda likes her and that would work about as well as Keefe liking her at this point.**

 **Saraoh781: Aww, here's a Sophie chapter.**

 **Holy…*deep breath* okay I think I got every one. Enjoy the chapter. Don't hate me. (You'll understand soon)**

 **Sophie POV**

"Well that was… _strange._ " Sophie sat down, dangling her legs off of the reservoir, and began absentmindedly tossing pebbles into the water. Luc sat down next to her, so close their bodies touches and he started throwing gravel too.

"Yeah." They sat like that, just the two of them, side by side, content to just be together in silence.

She didn't know how much time had passed when Luc suddenly jumped to his feet. He reached his hand down to her. "Come on." Sophie obliged and soon she was wrapped in his arms. She sank into his embrace. Far too soon he pulled away but he never let go of her. "Here give me your hand. It's a skipping stone, see." He explained when he placed a small, smooth, clam shaped rock in her hand. Luc then turned so he was standing behind her, his arms surrounding hers, and he held her hand, guiding the motion. She didn't tell him she already knew how to, or that it wouldn't work since they were so high up. She just enjoyed the moment.

He blushed when it didn't skip but Sophie just smiled. "We can fix that after we fix my baking." He smiled back but it was short lived.

"You want to talk about it? Those guys, I mean its okay to be a bit freaked."

She shook her head. "I don't know. Lately I've been getting these weird flashes of déjà vu. Like, I'm missing a bunch of time. But I remember everything that's happened. But then I try to focus on a memory and suddenly it gets really unclear of I get dizzy. And then these guys show up out of nowhere saying they know me, and I've had some chance meeting with one of them. It's all so messed up and confusing. I just want to ignore it all right now."

"Then don't." He shrugged. "We could talk about my life. You are always saying I don't talk about myself enough."

"That would be nice. But no sugar coating, I want all the gory details."

"Just remember you asked." He sighed. "So where should we start? Um, well next year when I turn sixteen I plan to get emancipated. Yeah I know crazy. But I can't stand where I am now. My mom died when I was too young to remember her and my dad's a bit…judgmental. He wants me to grow up just like him, just like my brother did. To join the Marines and 'save the world'. Don't get me wrong, I admire all that those guys do, but it's not for me. I want to make things. I want to use my hands and create something that makes you feel something, you know? I want to make an art piece that will transport the viewer to whatever world I was in when I made it, but at the same time a world that's all their own. That's my passion but passion doesn't fit my father's mold. So as soon as I can I'm going to leave." She had never heard him speak so passionately about something as he did this.

"Speaking of art," Suddenly he looked very shy. He reached into his chest pocket and pulled something out, shielding from her eyes. "We've been friends for exactly one month today and in that short time I feel closer to you than any of my friends I have known for years. And I was thinking about then when I found this really cool stone on my way home so somehow I just ended up making this and-well-here." He opened his hand and revealed a bracelet. The strap was intricately braided brown leather with one elegantly carved black swan.

Sophie was speechless. It had to of been carved out of some sort of obsidian or something. "You made this? This is-it's beautiful Luc. Thank you." He grinned at her praise.

"May I?" He asked gesturing to her wrist. She hesitated; he had never seen her scars. He grew concerned from her hesitation. "Sophie? What's wrong?"

"It's just, I have…scars."

"What? Wait, do you mean?" She realized what he was implying and shook her head vigorously.

"No! Nothing bad. No I…got hurt… pretty bad last year. No one but my family and the doctor have seen the scars."

He seemed relieved by this and smiled. "Hey, it's fine, no judgment at the reservoir remember?" She smiled back and held out her arm for him to put the bracelet on. He sucked in his breath when he saw.

The scars looked like pink and red spider's webs spiraling up her forearms all the way to her elbows. But it was layers upon layers of the spider web scars to the point where no unblemished skin was visible. **(AN: I now this isn't how burns typically look but she was burned by a crazy pyrokinetic okay? I didn't think it would look the same.)** He brushed his hand over her scars. "Who did this to you? These aren't normal burns." He whispered.

"Not a who." Though it felt like a lie when she said that. "When I lived in San Diego there were some pretty bad wildfires and we didn't evacuate in time. No one anticipated them to get so big so fast and my house caught fire. I got stuck and burned my arms. Luckily I was rescued in time or more than my arms would be burnt. No one could explain the fires, they burned white hot." She shivered at the memory and Luc seemed to shake out of his dazed. He pulled her into his lap and wrapped her in his arms.

"Hey, look at me, it's okay. You're okay. You don't have anything to be ashamed of anything. No scars could detract from your beauty." He smirked. "If anything, it's like some sort of unfortunate but cool tattoo." He put the bracelet on. "Bu I understand. People are jerks who don't have interesting lives so they gossip about people who do. I won't tell. Cross my heart."

"I know you won't." She looked at the gift. "So…why a swan?"

He gave her a puzzled look she couldn't decipher. "I noticed how you are always doodling them. Whenever you tune out you start making the pattern in the dirt or on your hand. It's all over your notes. I don't know I thought you just really liked them so now whenever I see one I think of you."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, you've never noticed?"

She answered no and grabbed her book bag which had fallen a few feet away. She reached inside and pulled out her note book. Sure enough it had tiny swans all over the margin. "Weird. I didn't know I did this."

"Maybe it's because you know you are a swan amongst geese." She quirked her eyebrow at him and smirked.

"Quite the sweet talker. I applaud you."

"Hey I thought it was romantic!" Her smile fell.

"Romantic?"

"Yeah. You know, a guys says sweet nothings to the girl he likes. Or he could you know, just kiss her." Luc did something she had never expected. He leaned in to kiss her. A million thoughts rushed through her head in that second before his lips touched hers. Primarily that she had no idea what to think. Part of her eagerly anticipated it, but another, hidden and suppressed part of her felt like it was wrong. That her first kiss was meant to be with someone else. For some indiscernible reason that made her think about the boy from before, Fitz. She decided to worry about that later and relish this moment. So when their lips met, she kissed him back.

 **So…have fun with that.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So I have a couple other chapters written and 13 is like my favorite yet but I'm going to start saving the chapters. It takes me about and hour to two hours to write a chapter and when school starts with swim practice in the morning and all my homework after I won't have much time to write other than weekends. So I will start saving them so you won't have to wait so long. Ugh high school.**

 **Shout out to** **Copicrazeunwoltxnaa: Thank you for your fav.! That is so awesome!**

 **Guest: Sorry! But the next chapter is a new pov, I hope you like it.**

 **Keeper: Well unfortunately it is not a Keefe fic because I don't ship incest sooo…yeah. Sorry I hope you still like the story though.**

 **Saraoh781: yeah, Luc was an unexpected romantic complication for Sophie wasn't he. Well thank you, I guess you will just have to wait and see who she ends up with.**

 **ForeverFreeFall: Aww thank you so much! And OH MY GOSH NO REVIEWER'S EVER GIVEN ME A COOKIE THANK YOU HERE HAVE A BATCH OF THEM (::) (::) (::) (::) (well you get the point)**

 **Springgirl: Thank you! And I can't say what is going to happen with Luc and Fitz but I think you guys will like it.**

 **Pen .edge: I can't help it! Luc seems to be having this effect on a lot of people including me! He is the personification of my perfect guy, literally! But don't worry, Fitz will get his time too and it will confuse your heart even more.**

 **Copicrazeunwoltxnaa: (Whoa long name :)** **) I'm sorry. But never fret, Fitz's time will come.**

 **Bianna POV**

"Where are they? They should have checked in by now." She began pacing her the length of her room. It had been over ten minutes since Fitz and Dex last checked in at the human school. She was beginning to worry. What if something went wrong? What if they didn't find Sophie? What if they did and something still went wrong?

She didn't realize she was crying until she felt Keefe's hand on her shoulder. He didn't ask if she was okay, he could feel that she wasn't. "Sophie's fine, Bianna. There's no reason to feel guilty. We're having fun remember? Spying, sneaking, breaking the rules, going to the forbidden cities and disobeying the council! Fun stuff! Everything is working out!"

She shook his hand away. "Ugh! I am so sick of you! When are you going to admit that you are just as upset as _everyone else_? Fitz and Dex may be too dense to notice but anyone with half a brain can see through you façade! Friends help each other! It goes both ways! Stop trying to be such a bloody hero! It doesn't suit you!"

Bianna regretted saying it as soon as she saw his smile replaced by clear hurt. "Thanks."

"That's not what I meant, I didn't mean that you can't be a hero it's just-"

"I know what you meant Bianna, I get it. Can we just drop it?" She would have kept pressing, but then they heard Fitz yelling down stairs. One look at each other and they agreed to put their current conversation off until later. Her hand was on her bedroom door knob when it swung open.

"Where did dad go? I can't find him!" He looked terrible. But unlike earlier, now he looked _angry._ Dex stepped in behind him, looking equally as bad.

"He left a few minutes ago for some emissary stuff. Why, what happened? Did you guys find Foster?" Bianna decided she should be worried. If Keefe looked this concerned, then he could not be feeling anything good from the two boys.

"Explain later, I need to find my dad. He has some stuff to explain. Bianna, can you still track where he is?"

"Yes, but Fitz maybe you should calm down first." Nevertheless she pulled out the tiny device and found that her dad was visiting Grady and Edaline. "He's at Havenfield." Fitz nodded his head once, and reached for his pathfinder. "Whoa wait. Where do you think you're going? Those two are a mess! You can't bring this up in front of them!"

He just shrugged. "They disserve to know this too." Bianna looked to Dex, trying to make him talk some sense into her brother but he just looked down. Keefe wasn't going to stop him either.

She sighed. Leave it to her to be the sensible one for all of them. Now she would have to be the damage control. "Fine then we're all going." She leapt away before anyone could protest.

…

Once they arrived at Havenfield the group seemed to take a collective breath before knocking on the door. A gnome answered the door and began to show them in but Fitz pushed past him and walked right to the sitting area where they saw the three adults talking. Dex and Keefe shrugged and followed suit. She internally groaned.

After apologizing to the gnome she ran after them.

"How could you!?" _I see Fitz hasn't wasted any time with, oh I don't know,_ manners. Alden turned around and smiled but it fell away as soon as he saw how furious his son was.

"Fitz, children, what are you doing here?"

"I think you know! How could you say Sophie was dead when you know full and well she's perfectly ALIVE in the FORBIDDEN CITIES?" Her dad stood, looking far too tired for comfort. She didn't understand why they both looked so upset. Sophie was alive; this was the best news she had heard in months.

"What?" Edaline stood as well, looking as though she was a starving animal who had just been thrown a scrap of food.

"Fitz this is something we can discuss later. I don't know where you think you got this information but I want you to calm down."

Grady jumped to his feet, making it so everyone was now standing in a circle. "Now wait a moment Alden, if there is something about Sophie we have not been told you are going to say it right now."

"Oh there sure is something! Like how you _wiped her memory of us!_ " No one spoke. Every one but Dex, Fitz, and Alden wore the same horrified expressions. She assumed her face looked the same.

"YOU WHAT?" Grady was the first to react.

Alden ran a hand through his hair. He looked around the room and held up his hand. "It seems I have some explaining to do. Please, sit." After a moment everyone sat, but it did nothing to help the icy atmosphere. And he did. He explained _everything._

…

Well, no one was too happy with Alden's revelation. Keefe and Dex just looked shocked but they were doing better than everyone else. Fitz was still furious. Grady was worse, he was understandably furious that Alden had trusted his daughter with a rebel, but he was shut up when her father pointed out that they hadn't wanted Sophie to be their daughter so they had no say in the matter. Edaline seemed to age a few years right there…but…in a way she also seemed happier knowing Sophie was alive.

As for herself, Bianna didn't know what to think. Obviously she was ecstatic that Sophie was alive but her not knowing who she was, it was hard to process. It was wrong; Sophie should not have had such a huge part of her life taken away from her. But…then she thought back to when Sophie had decided to wipe her human family's minds. She was a mess but…it was the right thing to do. Because she loved them. So if Sophie wasn't safe here, or as happy as she had seemed to be as a human…what kind of loved ones would they be if they tried to get her back? Sure without her they would be forgotten loved ones, but it was better than her remembering as she died, right? Bianna loved Sophie like a sister, despite their rocky start, and if Sophie could let go of her little sister to protect her, shouldn't she? Bianna was shaken out of her contemplation when Alden apologized to Grady and Edaline and leapt home with Fitz. Bianna, Keefe, and Dex all mumbled good byes and did the same for their respective homes.

She arrived home to Fitz and Alden yelling again. "I don't get it! She would be safe here! We could protect her!"

Alden finally cracked his calm exterior and yelled back. "Because she was tortured Fitz! By a second rebel group that we did not even know existed! When we though she was dead they were wiping her _impenetrable_ mind! That's why Fitz! We _can't_ protect her! We already _couldn't!_ " He seemed to collect himself after that. Once again calm he turned to the two of them barely above a whisper he finished. "She's safe, and until we stop the Neverseen, or at least aren't so hopelessly uninformed, then this is how it will remain. I'm sorry, I know this is hard but it will get better. There-there is no need to worry."

…

 **(One week later)**

 **Keefe POV**

It was nice to be having fun again. Sure they all still missed Sophie. He still missed making her blush or just hanging out. Their group of friends seemed off without her. But at least they were friends with Dex now. She would like that. And they had agreed they couldn't sit around and mope. She wasn't dead, and she wasn't gone forever. Someday they would have her back, and even if she couldn't remember them they would become friends all over again. But until then, it was nice to just play base quest and relax a bit.

It had been him and Dex versus Bianna and Fitz. But they had some tricks up their sleeves. Fitz may have been able to transmit, but he and Dex had booby trapped the area around their flag. They never had a chance.

Now the four of them were sitting at the lake, watching a couple of Moonlarks Alden had just gotten from the sanctuary swim around. They were all laughing and having a good time, but Keefe could feel Fitz mood drop as he watched the birds swim. "You're like a love sick puppy, it's adorable." Fitz didn't look up. He just managed a small half smile.

"We could do it you know."

"Do what."

"Track down the rebels and help fight. If we did that then Sophie could come back. We could do it." Keefe knew he wasn't really thinking straight, but that gave him an idea.

"You're right! We could. I don't know why we haven't though of this already! We could track down this Black Swan guy and help him fight! No one would expect kids so we could work without worrying! Let's do it!"

Fitz's eye's lit up but then he looked over at Bianna and Dex in the water. "But they can't come. Bianna's my baby sister and I won't let her come and Dex…he's already been kidnapped, I don't want him to be a part of this. Just us two."

They were in agreement. They were going to take down the Neverseen. This was going to be _awesome_.


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay so there were a lot of shout outs so I decided to just try to write another chapter tonight and explain everything then. If I missed a shout out it is because you are all so awesome and reviewing and awesome stuff. If I did feel free to rage in all caps and demand a virtual cookie.**

 **Shout outs to all the awesome readers who favorited this story: DemigodShadowhunterTribute (you pick amazing fandoms BTW), supernovachristian18, and twinkletoestbh (Who is triply as awesome for following and reviewing)**

 **Guest : You said it.**

 **Hailey: Aw thank you. Here you go.**

 **Keeper: Thank you! And I hope you end up liking it even if you don't OTP it.**

 **Copicrazeunwoltxnaa: Oh my goodness thank you for pointing that out I will be sure to fix that in the coming chapters. And thank you!**

 **Saraoh781: I understand not being able to review. Just knowing you like it makes me happy. Sorry this isn't a Fitz POV but that will be coming up in a couple chapters. (though he is in the next one)**

 **ForveverFreeFall: Thank you and ohmigosh imma get fat from all these cookies! If I do so do you here (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (:**

 **Pen .edge: Thank you so much that is so nice! And I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Twinkletoestbh: Hi new person! Yeah the whole shipping matter in this story has been a bit confusing and heartbreaking. But don't worry I think ya'll will like how it ends. I hope. Or you will all hate me but you know** ** _details._** **And thank you so so so much for understanding and the kind words. (:**

 **Gisela POV**

"Quinlin Sonden. You seem awfully confident for someone who has completely and utterly failed me in every conceivable way." She was almost pleased when his arrogant air fermenting her fine home dissipated at her glare; but not quite. She rolled her eyes, "You've no reason to loom in the doorway, Quinlin, if I wanted you dead you would be by now." She gestured towards the couch opposite of her. To his credit the tall elf did not hesitate, he simply inclined his head towards her and sat down. She always did like that about him, he was one of the few people who could dredge an ounce of respect out of her. Quite the feat to accomplish, truly, a pity what she was going to have to do to him. A respectable henchman was hard to come by. Not that he saw himself that way, a henchman, but in reality he was her puppet. Just like everyone. To other's the brewing conflict would be seen as a war, but to her, it was just a game of chess. A game where she was controlling both sides, making the rules. They were all her pawns. She smiled to herself.

"Silent are we? Good. Stay that way. Now I would like to know how you let a thirteen year old amnesic child escape your very secret underground hideout under your very strict watch." She raised her hand when he opened his mouth to begin concocting some absurd excuse for his failure." I am not done. I want you to explain to me, in excruciating detail- please, leave nothing out- how you have thrown away my extremely generous offer of mercy that had _one_ simple condition. That you track down my daughter! Now, I was under the assumption you were the greatest telepath in the Elvin world. Please do explain to me how the _most powerful elfin telepath_ has failed to track down a wayward teenage girl!"

She noticed him shifting uncomfortably before speaking, "Oh you are right to be uncomfortable. Few, and by few I mean I can count the amount of people on my right hand and have fingers left over, have failed me so miserable as you and survived to tell the tale. And I could. I could kill you so effortlessly that I would never even lift my pinkie. Speak. Explain yourself, convince me not to kill you right here, right now."

He cleared his throat, "My Lady, I did everything I could but we were overpowered. Sophie did not escape she was taken. By the Black Swan. There was a disturbance and I had trusted Brant to keep watch. If anyone has failed you it was him."

What an intriguing development. It seems her pawns have just one upped her last move. But it was inconsequential. She still had the perfect move to achieve checkmate. "You petty child. Brant is with us because of his raging power, but you know he is unstable. Trusting his with a responsibility other than destruction is doomed to fail and you know that as well as anyone, making this your fault. As I said before." She massaged her temple; she might as well be the only elf here with a brain the way they all acted. "Tell me you know where she is now and that is why you dared to show your face to me."

"Actually, we do have a relative location. My mental range has been blocked. Forkle no doubt. But I am stronger than him and found she is in the Forbidden Cities. I am still narrowing it down but I know that she is in Connecticut. It is a state in America."

"Find her."

"I'm sorry?"

" _Find her._ Now. Push harder and find out where she is. I'm done waiting."

"But…that power is beyond me. It takes time." Gisela looked directly into his eyes and she relished the power she felt when his eyes glazed over and in a trance he closed his eyes and began searching. A few minutes later, his nose bleeding and his face drenched in sweat Quinlin open his now clear eyes to face her. "I-how did you do that to me? _What_ did you do to me?"

"Her location?" She said ignoring his inquiries. He seemed too afraid to press it. Never taking his eye off of Gisela he pulled out his memory log and transferred his memory of her. He handed it to her, saying he would have a definite address once he gathered his thoughts. Sure enough, there was Sophie, sitting in a tree with some human boy. To her surprise the human leaned over and kissed Sophie on the cheek, causing her to blush beet red. Another intriguing development, but not to be overlooked.

"Quinlin, what does the Black Swan have that we don't?"

He seemed confused by her question, "Nothing. Truly they have pathetic numbers in everything from resources to men to hideouts compared to us. Statistically they can't beat us. Well, without the girl."

"Precisely. Statistically we cannot loose. But Sophie is the deciding factor. She could sway the end result. And she is what the Black Swan has that we don't. You may have succeeded in wiping her mind, but we both know that term is misleading. A memory that is there cannot be simply wiped away. A memory is an imprint on a person's mind. You cannot destroy a memory without destroying the surrounding tissue. You cannot just undo the impression. Now you can fill them in, put in blank blocks, fake memories, but you still have not erased the indention. And a heavy rain can wash away any fill in. That imprint may be blocked, but that does not erase intuition, instinct. Instinct that will tell Sophie to trust the Black Swan and not us. Not me. No, I'm done chasing this insolent child around the world only for her to be resistant. I need her to come willingly. To be on our side. It's time for the Moonlark to come home."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"No we. Me. I will get her to come home by using the very weakness the Black Swan thinks will get her to help then against her. She loves too deeply. Sophie's not the only one with more than one ability. It's time I use mine. And I think I know just the person who can help me." She looked at the human with Sophie in the tree. It was time. Her Moonlark was coming home.


	13. Chapter 13

**So there are a few matters I need to discuss.**

 **1\. so I said I was going to save chapters, right? Well I was and I did. But** ** _funny story._** **When I wrote like, up to chapter 16, and I was just so proud of myself, my evil laptop must have decided that much joy was just not allowed because it decided, before I had saved, (which in retrospect not saving that much work was pretty dumb on my part) then was the best time to update my computer, ending in a mandatory shut down. So this soooo not humorous story in the least bit is to say I have to rewrite them all and I won't have time before school starts so I am so sorry in advanced.**

 **2\. I feel like just school starting is a terribly lame excuse to make you guys wait possibly over a week (and yes this will be the new update schedule, nonexistent but hopefully every week) so I want to explain. Feel free to skip this if you don't want to read it or read a tad bit of ranting on my part, I just feel it is a necessary courteous to such loyal readers to explain. So I have a really hard year coming up, and I mean AP stuff and chemistry (my worst possibly area of science), swim practice at 5 am and meets all weekend, volunteering places for college applications, and creative writing, while the class I am most looking forward to, is an extremely writing intensive class on top of trying to learn a new language. So with all that I really don't know when I will be able to write this but I** ** _will_** **keep going whenever I can. Thank you for understanding, and if you don't well it won't change anything but I am still sorry.**

 **3\. I pondered a lot on what kind of chapter to leave you guys with when the wait will be indefinite and I finally decided this would be the best chapter. Continue this note at the bottom.**

 **Thank you again for everything and if you read this whole note bless you amazing person.**

 **Sophie POV**

 _"_ _Did you just…hear that?" Sophie saw she was looking at Fitz, the day they had met in the museum. "You did-didn't you" He leaned in to whisper, "Are you a telepath?"_

 _Suddenly she was in some mystical looking forest, running after Fitz and a blonde boy with more power than she had ever felt. Everything went black and when she could see again she was in a doctor's office._

 _A man that reminded her of a young Albert Einstein bent over her. "Welcome back." She looked over at the boy she recognized a Fitz sitting up in a cot next to her, mirroring her movement. The rest of the room faded away and it was just them sitting across form each other. "Fitz?"_

 _He smiled at her sadly. "I've been trying to reach you where you might be able to remember. I've been transmitting non stop, I almost made it too but I guess a dream was as far as I could make it."_

 _His image was flashing and shimmering like a mirage, like if she focused too hard it would all disappear. So she didn't. She didn't want it gone. "Fitz, I want to remember. I feel like I should, but-it's just all so confusing." He reached out to her, but that only pushed them farther apart._

 _"_ _Sophie?" His voice laced with concern for her, "Sophie, I know this is confusing and I know you don't remember and that you think you care about the human Lucas but I wanted say. I really care- I think I-"_

 _She was underwater, millions of tons of water encasing her body, the pressure threatening to crush her fragile bones. Her lungs experiencing an unbearable sensation telling her she was drowning. As the rush of pure unadulterated fear coursed through her she struggled to free herself from the sea's deadly embrace. To no avail she worked, desperately trying to force her limbs to move, to bring her to air. But, as the darkness around her faded into a thicker, more permanent darkness, she stopped. She realized her perishing was only made more imminent by the energy she was exerting on a useless escape attempt. As she eased into a relative acceptance of her imminent doom, she could see her captor more clearly. All at once the piercing horrifying realization set in. She was not drowning in water but in an ocean of thick, scarlet red blood. The blood of all the people she had failed. All the people she had hurt. All the people who would die to protect her when she should have protected them. She screamed, only allowing the boiling hot blood to rush in, flowing through her, burning her from the inside. The blood was hers now, she was choking on her own blood. What had sustained life was going to take hers. She sobbed and, as she tried to take one last labored breathe, the blood filled her lungs again. She was drowning. She was dead._

…

Sophie woke with a start, her heart pounding dangerously fast. She could feel the beads of sweat dropping off of her drenched face shinning in the moonlight from her window, the blood on her tongue from biting her cheek.

She couldn't breathe; her room was spinning around her, the walls closing in. She had to be going crazy, that's why the dreams felt so real. Why her life felt so wrong. Why she couldn't see two feet in front of her.

She tried to jump up, to get out of this room that was suffocating her. But it was still spinning, blurring, she felt herself fall, her head hit something hard, the familiar warmth of blood on her forehead. She saw her sister screaming for her parents as she ran over to Sophie. But everything was muffled like she was still under water. Then everything went black.

…

Sophie woke up to florescent lights blaring in her through her eyelids, tubes stuck in her arm, and a distinct smell of sterilization and sanitation. A doctor's office. She knew she should open her eyes but she just wanted to be asleep. _She looks so…pale._

 _Why is it always her who gets hurt? Why my baby girl?_

 _What if she dies? What if the last thing we did was fight? Why won't anyone tell me what's going on?! She better wake up soon, this silence is weird._

 _This can't be happening._

 _Please wake up, Swan._ "I'm not dead Luc, I was just sleeping." Sophie muttered as she pushed herself up. Her mom cried out and hugged her, her dad and surprisingly her sister not far behind. Luc sat on the other side of her bed, looking like he wanted to kiss her right then and there. Her hospital bed. She had been close. Sophie tried to ignore the coming head ache, it was probably just sore from hitting it.

"Thank goodness you're awake!" Her mom was trying to keep back tears.

"Of course I am you guys are really loud! Really there's no reason to be so worried."

 _Oh she wants to go there!_ "Lucas, Conner, Natalie why don't you go get some food. We will join you later."

 _Like I Don't want to talk to my daughter too!?_

 _Shoot she's on a war path. If the fall didn't kill Sophie she will._ "Sure thing. Come on Natnee. See you soon Sophie."

 _Food! Wait- "_ But I want to stay!" Luc just grabbed her hand gently and walked away with her dad close behind them.

She was seriously confused. "Wait, doesn't that bother you? Them saying that? Being so…honest?" Her head ache was turning into a full blown migrane, making her was to cry and curl into a ball and throw up all at once but she tried to ignore that.

Her mom looked at her like she had just sprouted a third eye. "Saying _what?_ Sophie are you ok? Should I call a nurse? You hit your head very hard." _Oh gosh she could have brain damage! I don't know how to take care of that!_

Sophie was appalled! "Mom! I'm fine just a little scratch!"

"Okay honey in that case, WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED!"

"I don't know, I just had a nightmare and tripped and hit my head. I can't even remember what it was about." She nodded like she believed her. _I bet she was going to sneak out to see Luc. I knew she was too young for a boyfriend! If she's done anything bad with him I swear-"_ Mom! Why don't you believe me!? Luc would never do anything bad!"

She put her hands up as if surrendering. "I never said he did."

"But you-but…" But she hadn't said it out loud. Her head felt like it was being stabbed repeatedly from the inside. She had heard what they were thinking. She really was going crazy.

So that was a really good place to stop but I want to write this part so much I cant help it chapter not over.

Sophie was sitting in a tree. It really wasn't very smart considering her current worry of her mental stability but she needed some clarity. Sitting in a tree in the middle of the night was the one place she hadn't been bombarded with human thoughts for the past week. Yeah…it had been a strange week.

Sophie looked at her scarred arms. Maybe now her mind just matched her body. Out of no where a figure appeared. She wasn't sure what to do, scream, run, or hide. Since he hadn't seen her yet she decided to hide. That is, until she saw his face. "Fitz!?" She clamped a hand over her mouth, grimacing when he spun around and spotted her. She quickly rolled down her sleeves to cover her scars.

He ran over to her. "What are you doing in a tree?" He didn't look like a serial killer, he just seemed curious as to why she was in a tree.

"Irrelevant! Why are you in my yard?!" He blushed and looked up at her sheepishly.

"I was…looking for you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay that's all!" He added quickly.

She sighed. She knew she should be scared of him, showing all the signs of being a grade A creeper and all but she didn't have it in her to care. Besides, something about him just made her feel safe. "Come on up." He grinned-truly a dazzling movie star smile-and quickly scaled the tree to sit next to her. His teal eyes seemed to reflect the moonlight; she could see the tree's shadows illuminated by the moon, all in his mesmerizing eyes. Eyes that seemed to pick up on her current state. "Something's happened. What's wrong?"

She laughed without humor. "Where do I start? That I think I'm going crazy? That you showing up to sneak in my window in the middle of the night to _make sure I am okay_ doesn't even faze me anymore? I mean be straight with me, why are you here?"

He looked directly at her seeming to weigh his options. He nodded once, seeming to come to a decision. "Truthfully, I was here to try to make you remember." Of course. He was crazy too. At least misery loves company. Company that's body would be envied by an underwear model. Wait what? She shook her head. Nope, she just was not feeling into dealing with more crazy than herself that night.

"Remember what, Fitz? We met _once_ then you showed up and beat up my best friend."

"You don't understand." He ran his and through his black hair. "You don't know you need to remember anything because you-well you don't remember!"

"…Okay…well, what is it that I don't remember then?"

"Sophie, you and me," He pointed to the two of them, "We are not human."

"Ahhuhh. Yep. I was right. You are crazier than I am."

"I'm serious. We're elves, telepaths! Both of us we can read people's minds. And you're better than anyone! For a year you lived with the elves and you had a family, friends. You had Dex and Keefe and Biana and my parents and Grady and Edaline and a whole bunch of people who care about you and you have me too." Most of what he said had been fuzzy after he had said _reading people's minds. How does he know about that? Maybe because he read your mind._

"Please, Sophie. I know you can feel it. Something off, not quite right. Like if you try to focus on any memory from the past year before you lived here it will disappear. Like they are fake. Like something is missing." Her head was spinning. Everything he said felt right but what was she supposed to think? None of this made any sense. 

"What do you want me to say Fitz? That I suddenly think everything you've said it true and you're not crazy because somethings feel _off?!_ I don't know _what_ to think right now! I don't know what's true right now."

"Believe me, this is the truth. I'm trying to help you, _please_ trust me."

She had had enough, "No! You're not here because you want to help you're here because you want something! What do you want!?" She straddled the tree branch to keep her balance.

"I want you to remember! I want you to remember everything; I want you to remember _me!_ I want you to remember how much we trust each other, how much fun it is when we are together! I want you to remember so you can come home! So you are not dead to everyone! So we don't start an all out war with another rebel group just so you can come home." He stopped yelling and straddled the branch like she did, he was only a few inches away from her now. "Because I will. I would fight a war and win if it meant getting you back."

"Why do you care so damn much?" But there wasn't as much force behind her words.

Fitz ran a hand down his face, so many emotions battling for dominance of his countenance. Something in him seemed to snap. "BECAUSE I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU, SOPHIE FOSTER!"

It was a long time before she spoke, her voice barely a whisper. "Wrong Sophie."

 **So as I was saying, I decided it had to be a cliff hanger. But how do I top the last chapter? Easy, I make it romantic. I hope I have made you guys experience as much emotional turmoil I did when I wrote this. (hehehe) No but seriously I hope you guys liked it.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry about the wait guys the past two weeks have been…hectic. Sorry if this was crappy I was rushing.**

 **Pen. Edge : Hehehehe. Don't worry if you end up in a hospital from a torn heart I will send you cookies. Thank you so much.**

 **Copicrazeunwoltxnaa: well it wasn't intended to be particularly funny, but I am still glad you liked it.**

 **ForeverFreeFall: ugh school, the bane of my existence. And thank you here's that update sorry for the wait.**

 **Keeper: yay that's what I was going for!**

 **Hailey: My thoughts exactly.**

 **Guest: I don't really know what that means but thanks for the enthusiasm!**

 **Tinkletoestbh: Oh my gosh really!? That's so cool! Does that mean I started some sort of word trend! That would be SO COOL! MY LIFE GOAL HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED!**

 **Guest: Thank you. Here you go.**

Forkle POV:

He hated doing this. The darkness. The hate. The evil and betrayal he felt as he forced his way into each and every one of his followers in the Black Swan. One at a time. One at a time he found the traitors; one at a time he broke their minds. This was never what he had planned, what he had wanted. Contrary to popular belief he did not want to hurt people. He hated it. Breaking into the minds of the people who had been so loyal to him, breaking them. But it had to be done, they were traitors. He had to weed them out. To cleanse his ranks. To eradicate the Neverseen. Breaking their minds may not destroy all of the Neverseen, but it would weaken them. He could only keep going by remembering why the war was raging anyways. He was breaking evil minds to protect innocent. It would always be worth it.

He left the mind of a newly discovered Neverseen agent. His mind was broken now. He ran a hand down his face. He wasn't sure how many more betrayals he could take. "Sir"  
Forkle turned to see one of the black Swan agents that had been cleared as an honest follower. "It's time. They are at the cave." Ah, the young elves who thought they could save the world. He really didn't have time to see them, but if he didn't go to them they would try to stop the Neverseen on their own. That would have catastrophic results, they had no idea what was really going on. He sighed. It was time to meet the children who thought they could summon a two thousand year old rebel.

…..

"What makes you think I have nothing better to do than speak to a couple of spoiled children who are throwing a tantrum over not getting their way?" The boys jumped. He had to admit he did enjoy startling people when he appeared out of nowhere from his dwarves' tunnels. They were all there. The Vacker kid…and…Gisela's boy. The poor child, he doesn't even know.

Keefe stepped forward. He seemed to take a moment to gather control over his emotions and form his emotional mask. Did anyone notice how distraught he was underneath? "We know about Sophie in the human world. It is quite the feat to accomplish, and while I must applaud the achievement, I gotta say I kind of hate you right now and think you are despicable." He cocked his head to the side. The boy didn't know he shared a mother with Sophie either. Fitz seemed to be brooding in the corner, as though if he spoke up he would not be able to contain his emotions.

"You two know absolutely nothing. Your knowledge is so pathetic that I don't know if you should laugh or cry."

Fitz seemed to have had enough. "Then _inform us._ I'm done with the secrets, the lies, and the deceit. You want to stop whatever impending war is happening and we want Sophie back. _Tell us what's going on and we can help._ " The silly love-struck boy. Doesn't he know if they get to a point where they can stop the rebels, he will loose Sophie for good? That no matter which way Sophie fought, she would perform her purpose, and she will not come back from it? This was going to be a long night.

 **So this meeting is supposed to be longer but I will have to write the rest after homework and I wanted to give you guys something until them for being to patient. Sorry again about the wait.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Guess what!? I just finished outlining the entire story which means everything that is going to happen is all planned! No fear of writer's block! Lots of pot twists! Mwuhahahahaha. I also wanted to say that the story will catch up with that last chapter and by then Sophie will be 15 and Fitz will be 17. Just incase you were wondering.**

 **BookButterfly11: YOUR EXCITEMENT IS SO CONTAGIOUS LIKE A STOMACH BUG AT SCHOOL BUT IN A GOOD WAY! Thank you so much and of course imma respond to all these awesome reviews because awesomness requires more awesomness. (:**

 **Evalynleeunwol: Um…I think I know what you mean. So searious and mature? Well like I said it is way future so they will be 15 and 17 which is still young but not THAT bad and they are in like, really epic battle time so you know, tragedy ages you. I hope this makes it a little less weird.**

 **Twinklwtoestbh: Oh my goodness I can see both of those so much! To me I always think of Break Away for Sophie or Back From the Dead in some circumstances.**

 **ForeverFreeFall: Yay! Thank you so much!**

 **Keeper: Yay again! Thank you so much I'm glad you liked it!**

 **Pen. Edge: oh my goodness thank you so much that is like the nicest thing ever! *cries tears of awesomness at how awesome you are***

 **Forkle POV:**

"Why are you even here? You are fifteen. You think you know what love is? You think you know pain? What makes you think you could possibly be of any help to me-don't try to deny it, I know that's why you are here. While your tenacity is thoroughly amusing, it hardly helps with a war on the horizon." He said all of this in a neutral tone, a droll saying that he was simply stating the facts. If only it were that simple.

"And you," He said, turning to Keefe, "You want the truth? Here's the truth for you. Your own mother is the leader of the Neverseen. You can't even see evil in your own home and you're an empath. Why on Earth would I even consider letting you help me? Please, do tell." He instantly regretted saying it. He would have said it in a more…diplomatic way had he been thinking. But he hadn't, and there was no way to make it better. He could see the boy begging to feel an ounce of insincerity from him, any indication that he was lying. See his eyes moving as he pieced everything together, everything starting to make sense. His pale skin had grown a sickly pale and Fitz had run over to his friend. Neither said anything. What was there to say?

He shook his head sadly. Keefe deserved to know. He had a right to as much. His voice held a morbid tone as he spoke up, "Don't you see? I could explain to you everything I know. Every last world shattering detail. Every last fact about this brewing war that is much more significant than you could possibly comprehend. But it would be of no consequence. The war would not end. Sophie would not be back and you would still have no place in this battle. All I have for you is sadness. You have a chance to get away; don't willingly bring yourselves into a war."

Fitz looked up at him incredulously, "So that's it? You expect to tell us something like this, and just expect us to go home? To go about our merry lives like nothing has changed? How weak do you think we are? We don't need to be protected. We are not doing this just because we want Sophie back. We miss her sure, but if there is a war coming, innocent people could get hurt. I'm not letting that happen." Even though he glared at the two young elves, he couldn't help being impressed. Few would be as brave as those two young, broken boys.

Keefe shifted in his friend's arms so he was supporting himself. He was obviously not in great shape, but he was steady. He was past upset, now he was mad. "You just told me my mother is the leader of the rebel group that tried to kill two of my best friends, who is trying to start a world-wide interspecies war. You seriously think I can go home now? I want to know everything. I mean _everything._ No more secrets. Then, I want to stop my mother. I want to help stop this war. So spill." He couldn't help the budding respect for the elves growing. What could it hurt? The traitors weren't going anywhere.

"Fine. But if we are going to have gruesome story time, I'm sitting down." And he did. Right on the cave ground. After he gestured towards them they hesitantly followed suit. "I will start from the beginning. You are both aware of the whole debacle a while back where the council seriously considered sending the human race away but they voted against containing an intelligent species, yes?" They both nodded, not understanding its relevance. "Well see, no one knew just how divided the Elvin world was at this point, and that decision drove a permanent wedge. Some people were content with the way the world was. Others, such as me, felt improvements could be made but nothing could be forced. Then there were people like…your mother. Like Brant." He could see Keefe visibly wince.

"But wait-Brant? As in Jolie's fiancé?" Fitz inquired, confused.

"Ah, you do not know this either. See, for a very long time there has been growing unrest, long before the rebel groups formed. Social injustices, unfairness that was overlooked and covered up. It played a significant roll in Brant's… _downfall."_ He proceeded to tell them all about Brant, about Jolie, about her death. He wondered to himself, if they looked so shocked now how they would react to the rest of his stories.

"Well, people such as myself began to congregate towards each other. We thought we were just going to fight the system. Do what we thought was right. Some sort of vigilante. In the beginning Gisela, Quinlin, and Prentice were my closest friends, my most trusted advisors. I was the leader of our growing group and they help me plan. I never thought it would get so out of hand."

He paused. The more he said out loud the more it all seemed like his fault. Like if he had just been more vigilant he could have caught the traitors and save so many people so much pain. "Prentice was my right hand man. Quinlin was my apprentice; I taught him everything I knew. After a while we discovered there was another rebel group. A much more radical, much more violent group. Our sole goal soon became stopping them.

"Their goal was to eradicate the humans and any elves that stood against them. They were extreme and violent with little to no provocation. They wanted the planet to themselves. They felt the humans were inferior and they should not have to hide in the shadows while the humans destroyed the world. We-we came up with a plan. A way to stop them.

"You have to understand at this point their numbers and prowess was so impressive that we needed a secret weapon. A way to destroy each and every one of them."

Keefe's eyes bugged out, " _Sophie."_ He whispered horrified.

"Sophie." He confirmed with similar sentiment. "I will always be ashamed of myself for this. For creating Sophie. At the time I did not consider her a child, a person who would grow and love and feel. I have not considered that she could be used as a weapon for the Neverseen as well. All I had seen was a weapon that could potentially incapacitate, break the minds of, or do whatever I pleased with the entire opposing army. I had-

Before he could continue Fitz stopped him, "So all this time that you have been saying you care about Sophie, that she can make whatever choice she wants, that was all crap!? The whole time you just wanted to use her to hurt people! Let me ask you something, how long did it take you to realize you were literally creating a baby to be turned into your own nuclear bomb so you wouldn't have to risk you own butt?"

He hung his head in shame. "I am not proud of what I have done. It has not always been right and it has not always been smart but I have always had good intentions."

"Tell that to Sophie!" Keefe grabbed Fitz's shoulder and told him to go on.

"I-I never thought when I asked Gisela and Prentice to help me in that particular way that Gisela would betray me I-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait." It was Keefe's turn to put up his hands. They were shaking. "What do you me about my mother 'helping'. Are you telling me that Sophie-that she's my-that we're-we're-" He couldn't seem to finish the though once he saw the look Forkle gave him. He knew. He looked about ready to pass out or scream and Fitz wasn't much better but they both told him to go on. They would process it later.

He hesitated for a minute. They both looked ready to strangle him and he hadn't even gotten to the bad part. "Prentice, he had wanted to protect Sophie. He had never agreed with me but he felt he was her best chance. He had noticed something off about Gisela I hadn't. When he had been investigating I began to teach Quinlin how to pass into Sophie's mind. He showed so much promise- I had never-. Later I found out it was Gisela who had gotten Prentice arrested. When she finally revealed herself to me, she-she planned to use Sophie. She plans to use Sophie to inflict on a wide enough range that she will turn every creature against one another. Effectively, killing each other off. Anyone else would go mad from the effects of Sophie. See, Sophie has never reached her maximum strength. If she were to, no one would get away. However…neither would she."

"So what you are telling us is that you both created Sophie with the intention of making her kill people and possibly herself in the process!?"

Keefe joined Fitz, absolutely appalled, "That's sick! It-it's demented! Why can't anyone else just stop Gisela!? Why does a 14 year old girl have to fight your battles? Why does anyone need to die!? Why her!?"

"You really don't know, do you" He looked at Keefe curiously and spoke slowly, " No mind is impenetrable. Nothing perfect and no one is immortal. Nothing is impossible. You need to understand that right now. Keefe, your mother, no one else would ever be able to get near her. We still don't know if Sophie is strong enough but she is the best bet. Gisela, she is a Mesmer. And not just any Mesmer, the most powerful and unregistered Mesmer I have ever seen. Sophie is quite possibly the only person alive able to stop her."


	16. Chapter 16

**Okay boy do I have some explaining to do! Summary: Life sucks, personal drama ensued, crap sucked the inspiration out of my writing, every time I wrote it sucked, NEVERSEEN, I put the story on pause, I was never-seen for nearly two month, SO SORRY, inspiration struck, happy dance, here we are.**

 **Fff: (Is this forever freefall? Me thinks…) THANK YOU FOR THE COOKIES I LOVE THEM SO MUCH MY HEALTH DIET WILL FOREVER PALE IN COMARISON TO THE SCRUMCIOUSNESS OF VIRTUAL COOKIES! *le sigh* Thank you so much for the review! I do love my cliffhangers.**

 **Pen. Edge: I KNOW I WAS SO FANGIRLING WHEN I WROTE THIS BECAUSE I WAS SO HAPPY THAT YOU GUYS WOULD KNOW AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ENTHUSIASM IT IS SO INFECTIOUS I CANT EVEN! Oop…still on caps lock. (: Hope you like what I have in store for the story.**

 **Alexialouis: aww, I am sure you are just as awesome!**

 **Guest/Fangirl1: Yay a new reviewer! Welcome friend! Thank you so much! I just get so excited when people review! Here is that update!**

 **For those that Fav/followed: THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU GUYS MAKE MY DAY!**

 **IMPORTANT**

 **PLEASE READ**

 **NO SEROISLY**

 **IT IS IMPERITIVE THAT YOU READ THIS**

 **MY LIFE IS AT STAKE**

 **WELL NOT REALLY BUT STILL**

 **R E** **A** **D**

 **T H** **I** **S**

 **Okay hopefully that got your attention. I took some time off from the story because personal issues yes, and upon reading back I realized how horrible putting in chapter 15 was. So I took it out. It will now be a one shot. So sorry about that. A writer should channel their emotions, not throw them up onto paper. I feel terrible for that. This also means that future is not set, thing could** ** _change._** ***wiggles eyebrows***

 **Okay that's all. Read on!**

Dex POV

Dex sighed in contentment at the familiarity of Foxfire, of the hominess of the large school. He shuffled around the books in his arms so he could lick the tiny lock on his new locker, pleasantly surprised by their flavor. "Wild berries." He sighed. A smile tugged at his lips. It was nice to be back in a routine where his biggest worry was if Elwin had gotten his way with the locker flavors or what his next prank would be.

"Looks like Elwin decided to go easy on us today, thank God."

"Hey Marella, what's up?" She was the picture of nonchalance from her body lazily supported by the wall of lockers to her untamed hair to her trademark smirk, however her raised brow and stormy eyes told a different story entirely.

She nodded her head, "What's up. What is up? Hum, let me think, well we started the new year a few weeks ago, my new universe teacher has been an absolute drag, I developed an ability, oh, I think Jensi has a thing for Biana, ah yes, and I found a yeti's prattle pin too. How about you?"

He had no idea how to respond. Between her tapping foot, crossed arms, and rapid fire speech he had no idea what was safe to say. He was never the best at reading people, specifically girls, and while he knew she was mad at him, Dex could not, for the life of him, figure out why.

"Um, you got an ability?! When did that happen? Why didn't you tell me this is so amazing! What is it?" She huffed and rolled her eyes. This was obviously not the right course of action.

"Oh yeah, I'm a guster, have been for a few months which you would have known if you ever talked to me! Perhaps after you were missing for two weeks and everyone thought you were dead! Do you know how frustrating it was to find out that you were hanging out with Fitz, arguably your least favorite person, over me!? No, don't talk, you know, I miss Sophie too! I lost YOU TOO." Okay, so that was way worse than he had thought. He now officially felt like the worst friend ever.

Dex didn't know what to say. What could he say knowing what he did about Sophie? Knowing that telling her would just drag her into all this mess. He started fiddling with his cape. "Marella… I had no idea…with everything that's been happening, I just didn't think you'd want to be a part of that. I-I'm so sorry, I've been a crummy friend."

"Yeah, you have…so it's a good thing I am as awesome as I am because I totally forgive you. See you at lunch?"

"Definitely." And despite everything that had happened the past four months, his grin was genuine.

….

As per his 'regular life' Dex was running late. By running, he was literally running, as for late, well, he was about to miss lunch entirely. He wanted to catch up with Marella and Jensi, maybe even see a bit of Biana. He had to admit that in the past few months the Vackers had grown on. Not that he would ever be friends with Wonderboy, per say, but he couldn't help but smile when he thought of how much fun he and Biana had playing against Fitz and Keefe. _I wonder if they feel the same way, I-_

His musings were cut short when he ran into someone. All he saw was a burr of messy blonde hair as they fell down in a jumble of flailing limbs.

"UHF."

"OUCH."

"DUDE GET YOUR FOOT OUTTA MY HAIR!"

"WELL YOUR PIN IS CAUGHT ON MY SHIRT SO STOP MOVING-wait Keefe?!" The heap of boys stopped moving as they both sat up.

Detangling himself the older elf grinned at him. "Dex, just the elf I was looking for. Of course, I didn't expect you to be quite so excited to see me, but I can't really blame you. I mean, who would?"

Rolling his eyes Dex drawled, "Yeah I just couldn't stand being away from you."

"That's the spirit!"

"So why were you looking for me anyways?"

Keefe smiled deviously as he draped an arm over Dex's shoulder. "My friend have I ever told you about how I pulled off the Great Guleon incident?"

"That would be a no."

"Yeah, well I'm not gonna. But I do need your help on something better." **(AN: Ha you think I will you tell you what it was? Nerp, not happening)** "Walk with me."

If he was being totally honest, Dex _really_ wanted in on…well whatever shenanigans Keefe was planning. He was done moping around. So they walked arm in arm down the empty halls as Keefe explained his plan.

"Dex, let me explain something to you. There are many different kinds of pranks, small or big, for friends or enemies, on the spur thoughts or grand scale plans. Well, this prank is the most intricate, epically mind blowing prank that it will top the Great Guleon Incident by far! Using the same substance I carefully injected all the school's food in a form that will cause serve flatulence. That mixed with the toxic scent fumes of guleon will be problematic to say the least. Then, I blocked all the exits and hid the leap master. Yes you heard me right, I literally _hid_ the giant chandelier. Please Dex, no questions, I am busy right now.

"The fart storm should begin fairly soon, but I did not save you from the deadly toots for nothing, see, I need your experience. Fairly soon I might add."

"Help with what?" He asked, suspicion laced in his voice.

"Weeeelll, I may have locked myself in too. A miscalculation, so I need you to make us some gas masks. Cause' we are the only two people in this building who are not about to blow up with explosive diarrhea-did I forget to mention the laxatives-and I do _not_ want to smell that. You have approximately three minutes."

"Wait-WHAT?! Are you kidding me right now?!"

"Two and a half minutes now."

With a frustrated cry Dex dragged Keefe into the nearest empty classroom and began messing with the tiny gadgets he always had in his pockets. With only half a minute to spare he had made two tiny little bubbles that temporarily shut off your sense of smell. He sighed in relief when he heard the screams but thankfully did not smell the _smells_.

The two boys high fived and sat down, not about to venture into the halls anytime soon. "So…since we are going to be here for quite a while since you locked everybody in and all…mind telling me what's going on with you? All jokes aside." Dex may not be the most perceptive person, but he could tell this kind of stunt was a cry for help even form Keefe.

Keefe suddenly looked a thousand years older as he laid his head on his knees. "No jokes?"

"None."

He shrugged. "I thought this would help, that doing something like this," he gestured to the air around them, "would make things feel better. Make me feel more like me. But it doesn't. Lately I don't even know what that is." He looked at Dex, so much anger and fear in his gaze, but above everything else, he looked lost. "New topic. I need answers. Dex, do you like Sophie?"

"Um, what?"

"Man, I just poured my heart out to you and it seems like with everything all us guys have been though we would do that more often. But it seems like the person who ties me, you, and Fitz together the most is what has been keeping us apart too. So spill, where are you on the Sophie Foster love scale?"

Tough question. He ran a hand through his strawberry blonde hair. Fine, he could be honest too. "Okay to tell you the truth, I did like her, before when we first met. She just dropped into my life all mysterious and changed everything. But you know when you have the 'crush at first sight'? The more I got to know her the more I fell in love with her and the more that crush disappeared. I don't know, I just-it doesn't feel like we are-she's my best friend and I don't ever want that to be anything else. I used to, but I don't anymore."

"uh hu, riddle me this then. Why are you always so jealous?"

Dex couldn't help his blush. "I-I don't get jealous! I-I-I just don't want to loose her." He shook his head. He could not believe he was admitting all of this, to Keefe none-the-less. "Sophie is my _best friend,_ and she is always getting hurt or bullied. I have to worry about loosing her to some rebels or injuries or humans or even herself. But even in all of that she stands by me as much as I stand by her. But one day she will wake up and realized she's friends with the lamest son of a bad match and she's going to ditch me for Wonderboy and his sister…and you. I don't want to loose her." His face flamed when he realized he was crying, but Keefe just smiled and shook his head.

"Don't listen to what everybody says. That whole 'bad match' thing is a load of crap. My parents were a perfect match and one is a conceited, arrogant jerk and the other is the leader of the Neverseen. Your parents love each other and they raised you, so they cant be half bad." After a few minutes of silence Keefe spoke up again. "I found out Sophie's my half-sister. Fate went all mortal instruments on us but I doubt there is some magical solution to our situation. The worst part is that I can't stop this feeling in my gut that she's in trouble, my _sister's_ in trouble but she's with the humans."

So Dex wasn't quite sure how to respond to that bombshell, so he chose to ignore it for the time being. There was something more important to say. "I have that same feeling. Like a sinking worry in my gut that Sophie's in trouble."

Keefe sat up. "Then why dint we go check on her? Who's going to stop up? The school that is all trapped crapping themselves or the council who broke the law to hide her in the first place?" Dex thought about arguing, but he made a good point, and he really was worried.

"Lets go."

"Great!" Keefe ran over and pulled the sheets off of the giant leap master. _Are you kidding me? It was_ right _there?_ "Quit dawdling Dex lets go!"

 **Yep a lot of heart to heart this chapter. I am hoping to finish the next chapter and have it up tonight so here's hoping. The next one is the one with all the action. Ta Ta.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi all.**

 **Springgirl: Oh my goodness you mean I-*whispers conspiratorially* made you FANGIRL! That is so cool! Hehehehe no spoilers…but wait until you read this chapter. Thank you so much and here's that review.**

 **EmUnited: Correct indeed. I am actually learning American Sign Language. And your Mom knows Japanese!? That is so cool! My dad knows Spanish and of course English but that is really awesome. And a swimmer!? Awesomesause! What's your favorite stroke? Mine is butterfly but I am best at the 200 IM and 200 free. And thanks for understanding about the drama. Hope you like this chapter!**

 **Thank you all who fav/followed!**

 **A special thank you for everyone who has been so understanding about my personal stuff.**

 **Enjoy.**

Sophie POV

 _I'm not afraid_

 _To take a stand_

 _Everybody_

 _Come take my hand_

 _We'll walk this road together_

Eminem blared through Sophie's ear buds at the highest setting, _almost_ blocking out all the thoughts. She felt the thoughts-someone else's thoughts- creeping in and she threw another punch, causing the heavy weight punching bag to violently swing back and forth.

It had been almost a month since she awoke in the hospital able to hear thoughts that weren't her's, since she woke up an even bigger freak than before, if that was even possible. Since then she had done everything she could to clear her head, to free herself from the torturous migraines and unwanted knowledge. Nothing ever worked. She couldn't talk to her family or Luc, what would they say? Were they even her family? Everything was so confusing, like everything that should be normal was foreign and things that should feel wrong and make no sense felt strangely right. She hit the bag again.

And again.

And again.

Once she was panting and sweating like she just ran a marathon Sophie switched to kicks.

Over the past few weeks the gym had become her sanctuary. She could work out all her anger and frustration and fear and even if she couldn't, she was tired enough when she got hope to sleep through the pain. Not only that, but people at the gym tended to be extremely focused, so their thoughts did not bombard Sophie nearly as much as they would in other public places.

Hall of Fame started playing so she matched her workout to that pace. Everyone, herself included had been surprised by her natural talent for fighting, sparring, boxing, MMA, anything of that sort. She found surprising peace in, well, any kind of fighting. And she was actually good at it. Not only could she predict her opponent's move before they acted, she seemed to have a natural ability to fight. Kind of like it was programmed into her DNA. It just came naturally to her. She loved it.

She swung her right arm fully intending it to make contact with the punching bag but instead hitting air. She stumbled and saw Luc holding the bag looking rather concerned.

"What the heck Luc?!"

He gave her a once over. "Sorry I was just excited to see you seeing as you have been avoiding me for three weeks. Funny, never pegged you for a boxer."

She crossed her arms. "Not _just_ boxing and it helps me vent. Besides, I haven't been avoiding _you_ ," _I've been avoiding everyone,_ "I've just been really busy."

"Busy…recovering from your stay at the hospital by pushing yourself so hard you will end up back there? You're in a gym, the walls are literally mirrors, look at yourself, Sophie, and you look like crap."

She wiped away the sweat from her forehead and glanced at her reflection. He wasn't wrong. She was sopping wet in her sweat, and the circles under her eyes looked like bruises. But that didn't mean he had to point it out. "Yeah well, you know what Luc? I'm sweaty because I am working out and I'm working out so I will get over this insomnia. I'm handling a bad situation and I could do without your ever so helpful input."

 _Something's different with her. What do I do? I don't know how to help her; I don't even know how to talk to her right now._ Sophie balled her fists as his voice flowed into her mind.

He held his hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean it that way. I just meant that I'm worried about you. Here," He tossed her a towel and she took it gratefully. "Why don't you go get cleaned up and we can go see a movie or something?" He looked so hopeful she almost said yes. But then she heard his thoughts and remembered why she couldn't.

"You don't need to be worried about me. Okay? And I have to finish my work out. Sorry."

"I'm fine with waiting."

"It will be a long time."

"I'm sure I've waited longer."

They stood there for a while, both too stubborn to back down. So she found a way out. She took a few steps back. She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, "Who wants to fight?! Only rule is no permanent damage?! Anybody?"

Sophie could feel Luc's worry and disapproval but she didn't care. She was done with people being worried about her. She wasn't some fragile flower, she could defend herself. She was tired of people smothering her and watching out for her. She stepped on the mats.

"Sophie are you sure this is a good idea-"

" I'll do it." She turned and saw the boy from the woods. Next to him stood a tall blonde boy about Luc's age with a wild edge to him. _Keefe._ Images swam through her head of him, of a fairytale world. She shook her head. These weird daydreams/hallucinations had been happening more and more often. Lately, she was having trouble figuring out if they were real or not. _Don't be silly, you've never met him before._ But that felt like a lie.

She shook her head. It didn't matter if she was going crazy, she didn't want it to _look_ like she was going crazy. "Dex right? What are you doing here? Did you ever find Sophie?" She blushed at her embarrassing amount of questions. She mumbled an apology but he didn't seem to mind.

"Yep, same Dex. I just saw this gym and thought 'hey I have worked out in a while, why not?' and you were here. This is my friend Keefe. He's a bit of a flirt so be careful." She noticed he didn't answer about Sophie. _Aw, maybe they haven't found her._ She decided not to press.

"Hi, I'm Sophie." She held out her arm and they shook hands. "A much nicer meeting than ours, huh Dex?" He turned a deep shade of crimson.

"Sorry about that."

"Ah yes, the famous 'attack the wrong person'. I have heard this story many times. Though, it is nice to finally meet you Fos-Sophie. You seemed to make quite the impression." As Keefe spoke Sophie tried to place what it was that was different about them. Sure they were abnormally good looking, strangely friendly, the accents she couldn't place, and she kept having the flashes of what felt like memories. But none of this was what she was looking for. Something was just distinctly _different._ She thought back to what Fitz had said that night. She had written him off as crazy, but she had the same feeling around him that she did around Dex and Keefe… and she really was crazy. A crazy freak. _Focus on the here and now._

She realized she was still holding Keefe's hand and promptly let go, but not before seeing him intently watching her, as though her heard what she had been thinking. 

"So Dex, you want to fight?"

Keefe smirked. "No he doesn't. He's more of a tech guy, I however would love to." This should be good.

"I'm not sure this is the best idea." Luc interjected.

"Nobody cares Pretty Boy. Stop your worrying, I'm not gonna hurt her. If anything you should be worried about me."

Sophie checked to see if he was joking, but he wasn't. This stranger actually believed in her. It was refreshing. "Then let's go."

It started out slowly, just a few swings and blocks. But after a few minutes they started to get comfortable, not afraid to hit and they started playfully trash talking. Keefe came up behind Sophie and twisted her arm pulling her back against his chest. _I should have heard him plan that I-I don't hear his thoughts!_ He leaned in a whispered in her ear, "You're sweating like a pig, sure you want to keep this up?" She frowned. She would _not_ be beaten by Keefe.

She knew he had a tight grip on her torso so Sophie swung her legs up until she had his head between her legs and with all her power she flipped them. Keefe landed on his back with Sophie on top of him, her knee on his chest and his arms pinned down. "I may sweat like a pig but at least I don't look like one." They both laughed as she pulled him up.

"That…WAS FREAKING AWESOME! HOW DID YOU DO THAT! YOU JUST WENT AND CHANNELED BLACK WIDOW OR SOMETHING!"

She couldn't help but smile along; Keefe's enthusiasm was so infectious. Dex was just as excited saying how she had to teach him that. Sophie searched the room for her best friend, but Luc was no where to be seen.

She sighed and started to pack up, laughing along with Dex and Keefe, until out of the corner of her eye she saw Luc.

Across the street from the gym she saw an unconscious Luc being dragged into the alley by a tall man. He looked vaguely familiar as did the eye patch on his shirt sleeve. " _Luc."_

Sophie dropped everything and ran after the man. She could hear Keefe and Dex calling to her, telling her to stop, but she didn't. Luc was in trouble. He needed her. She felt warmth growing the back of her mind. She drew on it, used it to run faster than she ever had before.

But it wasn't fast enough.

Sophie followed the man into a dark alleyway far away from civilian eyes where she crashed to a stop as did her heart.

Luc's kidnapper stood before her with a blade pressed to Luc's neck, already drawing blood. On his hand she saw a crescent shaped scar, causing even more 'memories' or 'dreams' to surface.

"Hello Sophie. Lovely to finally see you. You've grown to be such a lovely young girl." A woman appeared in front of Sophie. She would have been the most beautiful person she had ever seen had it not been for the evil sneer. She was too perfect looking, cold and unapproachable.

The woman smiled and reached out to stroke Sophie's face. She tried to back up but she was cornered. "Who are you! Let Luc go! Let me go!"

"Tisk tisk tisk. See, Precious, I need you."

"Get away from her!" Keefe stood panting, holding a throwing star in front of him, dead serious. "I said. Get. Away. From. Her."

"How lovely, the whole family, together."

"Keefe? What's she talking about?" Sophie couldn't figure out if she was more confused or scared. But she had a feeling everything she knew was about to change.

Keefe glared daggers at the woman. "Sophie, this is Gisela, our _mother."_ He spit out the word like it was acid on his tongue. Her whole world span. MOTHER? That's not possible. Her mother was Natalie Freeman. She just met Keefe…it-it couldn't be true.

Unless she was an elf and she just couldn't remember.

But she _was_ remembering. All those flashes and unfamiliar thoughts. They were _memories!_

Just one problem. Why on earth was their mother trying to kill them?!

"I-I don't understand."

"It is a _very_ long story, one I would be happy to tell you at home." Sophie almost wanted to trust her gentle smile, but then she saw Luc struggling and bleeding.

"Not a chance!" Sophie kicked out at Gisela and tried to run to Luc but she fell, losing control of her limbs.

"Fine, you want to do this the hard way, so be it." Sophie suddenly heard Gisela's voice filling her head, controlling her body. Sophie lifted her hand around her own neck and started to cut off her airway. "You think you are so powerful, but you, like everyone else, are powerless to stop me. Oh, don't think Keefe's or Dex are going to save you, they share your _predicament."_ Gisela looked to the man holding Luc. "Do it."

"He started cutting deeper into Luc's neck. "Stop. Please. Just Stop." She was sobbing, gasping for breath as she chocked herself.

"Dearest, I would, but you need motivation. Incentive. Come to me by the end of the month, and your human friend here will live. If you truly care, you will find a way."

Sophie felt her hand loosen and saw Gisela turn to leave. "NO!" Keefe surprised everyone as he threw his last start straight at his mother's heart.

Everything happened in slow motion after that.

Sophie breathed in.

The star flew at Gisela.

A force field appeared in front of her.

The star deflected and flew back at Keefe twice as fast.

Keefe looked directly as Sophie as it landed in his heart.

She breathed out.

And she screamed. Sophie screamed his name as she ran to his side cradling his head.

Her hands shook as memories flooded back, like a dam had broken.

She remembered. She remembered _everything._

She saw her tear falling onto Keefe's pale face.

He grabbed her had. His pale blue eyes captured hers, "Foster, don't ever let anyone tell you you're a freak, okay?" She could stop the flood of tears. "Now get out of here."

"No, no I won't-Keefe?! Keefe! Wake up! NO!" His hand went limp and his eyes stared vacantly ahead, devoid of any life.

For a minute Sophie couldn't tell if she was sobbing or as still as a statue. Then she was angry. Everything turned red. Blood. Red.

She felt rage she never knew was possible and it flooded out of her through Gisela's shield. The woman lay on the ground, a strange smile on her face. "Perfect." She whispered. Before Sophie could speak everyone but Sophie and Dex shimmered away.

She wiped a tear away and left a trail of Keefe's blood on her cheek. With that she collapsed sobbing like her world had crashed down around her.

Because it had. "Dex?" She chocked out.

"Sophie! Where are you?!"

"Over-over here!"

"Sophie's what's going-"

She tackled Dex and cried into his shoulder. "Please don't leave me."

He pulled her closer. "Never."

They stayed like that for a long, indiscernible time. When she could not longer cry but just clung to Dex she whispered in a voice not her own, "He's gone, Dex. Keefe's gone."


	18. Chapter 18

**Hi everybody! So, as usual, sorry it has been so long but here I am now. A few things to say so bear with me.**

 **One: Since I haven't been here so much I feel like I'm missing a lot. I just want to say, however late I am, I totally understand everything that's been going on with hurtful reviews. I just want to say- the best people get criticism. It's how you know you are getting so great that you are noticed. If you look, Shannon Messenger has a ton of bad reviews, and we all agree her work superb. I don't claim to know the whole story, I don't know if the review in question was intentionally rude or not, but just know that** ** _any_** **criticism is just one person's opinion, to which I assure you there are a ton more positive opinions.**

 **Two: So even though I have a basic outline for my story, I executed it astronomically different than I originally anticipated to. That is a big reason why it takes me so much longer. I have to outline each chapter as I go to fit my plot and how I want to end. Sorry about that.**

 **Three: Is it just more or have my stories been getting really depressing? Every time I write anything-boom death. In fan fics in creative writing class. I don't know why. So I want to start a second story just fluff. Is anyone else really nostalgic for the good old days of book one? I am. But I am already swamped with this one story…so I wanted to ask something. Does anyone want to collaborate? Coauthor? I've never done it so I don't really know how…but if anyone wants to I think it would be tons of fun. Tell me if you do. Pretty pretty please with little cookies on top. (::) (::) (::)**

 **Four: PLEASE REVIEW! I love to know what you guys think. If you love it hate it. *loki voice* TELL ME! DO you think I am awesome? Do you think I write OOC? DO you think I write flawlessly? DO you think my plot is flat and my characters 2-dimensional? Is it awesome? Is it boring? Anything just tell Me!**

 **Lastly (I promise this is it)**

 **ANOTHER VOTE IS HAPPENING!** **In honor of the new year, I will let you guys decide.**

 ***Drum roll***

 **1\. Sophitz face the interspecies war together**

 **2\. Sophitz fight but they make up in time for the ending**

 **3\. heavily implied Sophitz at the end**

 **4\. Luc? Maybe…**

 **YOU GUYS HAVE THE POWER! USE IT WISELY AND BEFORE January 9** **th** **.**

 **Thank you to everyone that fav/followed. I love you guys!**

 **Pen . edge : AHHH DON'T DIE! *TRIES TO SAVE YOU LIKE RUNNING A MARATHON** **WITH KEEFE AT THE FINISH LINE* *fans you with all the books* Okay, think the awesome books saved you.** **Your phone and Keefe however…I'm not so sure. I am glad to be back too, just in time to…kill characters…I should really not be allowed to write anymore. And you admire me?! That means so much coming from you, you have no idea! Thank you! And I wear my evilness with pride! I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Hailey: Yep. That happened. Gotta say, I'm crying over here too.**

 **Pegsisus: My thoughts exactly.**

 **Annicat: Thank you so much! I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Guest: Thank you! And well, it sure seems like Keefe died doesn't it? And I totally get that its weird, but in my world where I have power they don't like each other. At least they didn't kiss yet (Thinking about Star wars cause I just watched it)**

 **To both Jenna22KOTLC3 and Sugarspice: Omisweetgoodness I am not that cruel to end like that! That would be-though admittently cool-a horrible ending! Though *whispers* don't give people ideas, I hear there are some evil authors on here. (My friend just like stared me down as I wrote that, she says I'm those authors. Gee.) (: Here's another chapter.**

 **PRASIE THE LORD WE CAN FINALLY GET TO THE ACTUAL STORY BLESS YOU IF YOU ACTUALLY READ ALL THAT YOU ARE WHAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD!**

Sophie POV

 _Italics are flash backs to the past_

"I'll never tell you anything!"

Sophie smiled. "You all say that. That you will stand up for your cause. That no pain I can inflict will break you and no death scares you." The Neverseen agent she had captured, for a fleeting moment, looked proud, if it was possible for a murderous coward to be proud of his evil cause. The pride was quickly replaced with fear he was trying ever so hard to mask when she whispered in his ear, "It never lasts long."

The agent in her captivity struggled against her telekinetic force to no avail, Sophie's power was stronger than ever and she no longer held back for fear of her own power.

Fear wasn't a problem for her anymore.

She had more important things to worry about.

"I'll give you a choice. You know my power, you know that I can probe your mind, break it even, to find out what I want. You know i am capable of inflicting indescribable pain, causing you extreme torment with the flick of my wrist. You know I'll get what I want. But I don't feel like wasting all that time with you and I know you don't want to endure that. Tell me what you know about the Neverseen hideout in Australia, and I might work out a deal for you to go with minimal injuries."

"You know, you remind me of your mother." He spat.

"Have it your way. Don't say I didn't give you a chance."

…

 _Sophie and Dex sat arm in arm. He had become her life line, holding her from drowning in that alleyway._

 _By the time Fitz had arrived with Alden, she had cried herself dry. She just couldn't cry anymore, it was all on the inside now._

 _"_ _Sophie, are you okay!? What happened?" He crouched down next to them._ _"_ _Where's Keefe? …Sophie?" She knew he needed answers. Fitz had known Keefe ten times longer than she had, he deserved to hear it from her. But she just couldn't muster the energy to speak._

 _When she didn't respond Dex managed to croak out what he knew._

 _Alden seemed to age a thousand years, but he held together, trying to calm Fitz, to organize them. He said they should go, Gisela could be back and now that Sophie remembered she should come back with them._

 _Sophie noticed he had no 'no reason to worry' for them this time, it was too much of a promise for even him to muster._

 _Fitz ignored him, just sitting next to them, tears streaming silently down his cheeks._

 _Sophie didn't move. She just remained curled there, taking whatever comfort she could from her best friend's embrace._

 _They were a breaking._

 _No, they were broken._

…..

"You can't keep doing this, Sophie! You came to us! When you didn't want to stay with you family and you wanted to come here and help us defeat the Neverseen we welcomed you! But that means we work as a team, you can't keep running off and fighting people behind our backs! We make a mission plan for a reason!" It was true. Shortly after the…incident, Sophie had resolved to destroy the Neverseen and rescue Luc. But even she had to admit her disposition had been anything but cheery, and Grady and Edaline had just gotten past that. She was not about to drag them down again. It was bad enough that Sophie had to make her human family think she was dead. Sure, she knew how terrible it was to have your memories stolen…but she wasn't so sure how she felt at that moment could qualify as better.

"Wrong again, Mr. Forkle. I said I would work along side you, meaning the occasional exchange of information as a means to mutually benefit our end goals. That does not mean I have to follow your plans, and it certainly does not mean that I have to follow your orders!"

"Collaboration does not always equal combined forces, stop being so obstinate and listen for a moment and we may just get to Luc by the end of the month." He sighed, massaging his temple. "I'm on your side, Sophie; I'm just trying to protect you."

"We have one week to save Luc, if Gisela keeps her word, and all we know is where they are! I am not about to hand myself over to be their weapon of mass destruction so we need more information! We need a better plan! How exactly do you intent to protect me from that!?"

"I meant you, Sophie. I'm trying to protect you from yourself."

…..

 _His funeral was like any of the others that had become far to frequent in the Wanderling Woods._

 _It was packed with nearly the entire Elvin population; there was an elegant speech about how promising he was and how untimely his demise was. Everyone cried._

 _Sophie couldn't help thinking that he would have hated it._

 _She sat farther away with Dex, not wanting to face the stares or draw a scene. Keefe might have hated it, but this was his day. People should be mourning him, not judging her. Dex had been more than happy to oblige._

 _Well, as happy as he could be. Try as he might to hide it, he and Keefe had grown close. It was as painful for him as anyone._

 _"_ _It doesn't feel real. I keep thinking he's going to pop out and yell this was his greatest prank yet." Dex wiped away a tear. "But he's not going to, is he?"_

 _Sophie shook her head, it was real this time._

 _She looked up, scanning the area, "Did you hear that?"_

 _"_ _The crying?" She nodded. "Yeah, but, it's a funeral…it's kind of a given."_

 _"_ _No, it's familiar…" Sophie stood and followed the sound of her miserable friend. "Biana, is that you?"_

 _Biana looked up, her bloodshot eyes betraying her fury. "What are you doing here!?"_

 _"_ _What are you talking about, it's Keefe, of course I'm here."_

 _She jumped up staring at Sophie, "You need to go. Leave."_

 _"_ _But-" Biana stopped her._

 _"_ _Not the funeral. Everything. Our lives. I love you like a sister, Sophie, and I would do anything for you. But everywhere you go people get hurt. Who's next? Fitz? He's completely infatuated with you; he would take a medler for you any day. You're going to get him killed too! Where you go people die! Can't you see the pattern?! I lov-I loved Keefe, and now he's gone." Her face contorted like a mirror to Sophie's heart._

 _She wasn't mad a Biana. She was right._

 _So she left._

…..

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Sophie didn't need to look up from her maps and plans to know it was Fitz who had spoken.

"Come on in." The awkward silence ensued.

After a small eternity that was probably only a couple minutes long Fitz cleared his throat, the unspoken agreement to start an actual conversation. He seemed nervous, scratching the back of his neck. "So, um, how are you. I mean, really?"

"Diving right in, aren't you?"

"That's not an answer."

"A not answer for an impossible question." He wouldn't meet her eye, suddenly the carpet seemed extremely interesting to him.

"How are _you_ doing?" she inquired quietly.

"About as good as you." She wanted to hug him, but it felt wrong, like too much had happened.

It didn't change that she wanted to.

"So I heard about the whole 'Luke and Leia' moment. Must be strange."

"Strange doesn't even begin to describe it. I can't think it's weird because he's gone, and I can't miss him properly because I don't really know what I am to him."

"That's simple. You were his friend. Who happened to share a crazy mother."

"Even when you say it simply it's complicated." Their conversation drifted off back into the awkward silence.

He stood up abruptly, his eyes earnest, "Come back with me. Everyone misses you. Biana feels terrible and your parents want you back. You don't have to be alone anymore. We won't let anyone hurt you again. I won't." He was so sincere; she almost believed that it was possible. But then she remembered why she had left.

"I'm not worried about people hurting _me._ Don't you get that? I can't be around you or anyone right now! I'm confused about nearly everything in my life except one thing: I need to focus on saving Luc right now, to stop Gisela. Keefe deserves for her to be stopped!"

"Do you care about him, Luc?" Fitz nearly whispered.

Sophie took a shaking breath, "I don't, the human me did. But the elf me…I just don't know anymore."

She couldn't decide what it was Fitz was feeling, but he had definitely made a decision with himself. "Let me come with you. I won't let anybody get hurt again, and that includes you. Let me fight with you."

"Don't you get it?! I'm not yours to protect! I'm not going to stop you, but just know, I need to save the world. There is no room for feelings."

He smiled. "Feelings are never convenient."

"Neither is a hostage situation. Let's focus on the latter first. It is a tad bit more pressing." He smiled again, it was small, but its existence was so significant, it was a start.

….

 ** _Forkle POV_**

 _He had to let her join. The moment he saw Sophie he had known. She had to fight. She needed it to hold onto, he feared her mind would break without it. But watching her fight, become unrecognizable, he couldn't help but think ,_ What have I done?

…..

Sophie POV

Sophie fingered the latest note she had received from Dex. For once, he had respected that she couldn't be with them, that she had to do this on her own. He understood. But he still sent her little notes, letting her go her own way but letting her know he was there for her. His silent support was perhaps the most beautiful thing that had happened in a long time.

She shoved it into her pocket, not wanting to loose it among all the papers on her desk. They were battle plans. The beginnings of a war, all on a few sheets of paper.

At this point there were only two ways it could end.

One: She defeats her psychopathic mother, Keefe's murdered, rescue Luc, and let the Black Swan finish the fight.

Or Two: She loses and becomes the Neverseen's very own nuclear bomb.

But win or lose, Gisela was going to suffer.

…

Luc POV

Everything was black. Well, to him at least. He was blindfolded, so there was only so many variations of the color black visible to him. That was not nearly the worst part.

The worst part was what he heard. What he felt. All he ever heard was screams, whether it be his own or the other prisoner's, someone was always screaming.

What he felt was pain. Hunger. Anger. All that great stuff.

He didn't know where he was, or why, or who the other prisoner with him was. But he had a bad feeling that, one way or another, his stay there was almost up.

He wanted to throw up when he heard the familiar sound of his captor's heels slapping on the stairs. _Didn't she just leave?_ He wasn't ready for more. But she didn't turn to him.

Luc sighed in relief until he heard their exchange. ""Hello, dear." She chirped,

With more hate in the prisoner's voice than he had ever heard, the prisoner replied, "Hello _Mother_."

 **Yay! I hope you liked it. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE vote and PLEASE review. I will love you forever if you do. That's all.**


	19. Chapter 19

**The votes are in! Sophitz face it together wins! YAY!**

 **Shout outs to:**

 **To Willow, Annicat, and Sugarspice: YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND! IT'S HAPPENING! SOPHITZ! Thank you all so much for reviewing it meaning the world to this little writer's heart!**

 **Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee: Whew, I literally just counted all those e's. Fifteen, impressive. Thank you so much. You have no idea how happy I get when people say they like the story because you always doubt your own work so thank you! I hope you like this chapter!**

 **BookButterfly11: AHHHHHHHHHH! THE EXCLAIMATION MARK ARE-TOO-MUCH-AHHHHH! Jk** **J** **have I ever told you your reviews are so much fun to read? They are! Like I never thought someone could get so excited over** ** _my_** **writing! So THANK YOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU THANK YOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU! I'm so sorry/not sorry for the cliff hanger, I mean, wait until you find out what happens next! (hehehe) Definitely not a good idea to put your sanity in my hands though…just sayin'. Here's that update, hope you like it!**

 **Pen . edge: Hi again! Yeah, it is kinda weird responding to you on here cause we just talked buuuttttt…HI! Just gonna say, you will have to find out for your self on that whole interpretation thing though…cause SPOILERS! But I really hope your soul doesn't dissolve…that would be rather unfortunate…I think I would cry! As for the structure, yeah that was on purpose, to show all the change in Sophie's emotional state that was happening. It also looks like Sophitz is happening but don't worry, I love Luc too much to just get rid of him…or do I? Guess we will have to see. And as far as coauthoring, yay we're writing a story! WOO WOO! Thanks for being so awesome that you responded!**

 **SophieFosterRuewen: OHMYSWEETGOODNESS REALLY!? YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW SWEET THAT IS TO SAY I WRITE LIKE SHANNON** **I MEAN SHE IS LIKE MY IDOL! ASDDFGHADFHJ! Sorry about that.** **And forkle was intentional, as was Luc's awesomeness! Thank you so much for reviewing, and especially for liking my story!**

 **JoySeph13: I don't know, is he? THAT WOULD BE SO COOL CAUSE HIS DYING REALLY HURT ME HERE TOO! TO AVIOD NOT-LITERAL-BUT-JUST-AS-PRESSING-DEATH I HAVE UPDATED! Thank you so much for reviewing!**

 **Guest: Well, to be perfectly honest I don't know how to shout out to that. I feel like it disserves something passionate but simple…how about THANK YOU AND DITTO, DUDE, DITTO.**

 **A special thanks to anyone who favorite/followed! I love all you guys!**

When Sophie had agreed to work with Fitz to help them in the fight against the Neverseen, she had not had this in mind. Forming trust shouldn't be necessary to fighting bad guys. Really, how was knowing each other's deepest secrets going to change anything when it came to fighting an Elvin evil rebellion?

However Tiergan had insisted he would only help them fight if he felt Sophie had been adequately prepared for the struggle she was going to endure. Apparently, if Sophie and Fitz could form a mental bond strong enough, it could strengthen her own mind to resist Gisela, so there they were.

Over the past couple weeks while Sophie mentally prepared for the oncoming battle the Black Swan physically prepared. Well, expanded their forces, that is. Tiergan was one of many elves who had selflessly agreed-or volunteered like Grady- to fight along side the infamous rebels.

But despite the near-future fight, Sophie was having trouble forming the necessary mental bonds with Fitz. She had been too closed off for too long. She wasn't ready to spill her heart out.

More specifically she wasn't ready to adhere to the task at hand, the biggest hurdle they had yet to breach, which was fear.

Tiergan had said fear would be her undoing that fear was what Gisela would feed off of. Sophie was supposed to share her fears with Fitz, as he would with her, but she wasn't ready.

And apparently neither was he.

Because he was being even quieter than her, not once saying they should start like he usually did.

There seemed to be some sort of unspoken agreement not to make eye contact or acknowledge each other's existence at all.

And she certainly wasn't going to be the first to break it.

Which three hours later in the same positions felt pretty stupid.

Sophie wiped her hands on her knees, grimacing at her squeaky voice when she finally spoke, "Fitz…maybe we should just call it a day… I mean, look at us…" He voice trailed off.

Fitz shook his head, as if coming out of a trance. "No. No! We-" he paused as if trying to think of what he wanted to say. "Sophie, you're scared, and I'm scared too. Admitting stuff like this, isn't easy, if it were easy everyone would do it. But with all those fears we have out there, each other isn't one of them."

He held his hands out but Sophie hesitated to take them. What would he find if she let him in?

"I can't just _tell you_. It's deeper than that and you know it. It's more fundamental. I would have to let you in, you would have to feel what I feel, experience it, _live_ it to understand it. I'm not sure I'm ready for that." Fitz reached out and took her hands in his, and looked directly at her.

It was amazing that after all that had happened, his beautiful teal eyes were still just as captivating, that they still made her heart race. "You think I'm not scared too? Sophie, my whole world has changed too, _everything._ I'm terrified to share those fears because it makes them so much more real. But we're doing it together. You and me. And we agree that, as a team, we can't just out and say our greatest fears right?"

"Yeah but what else are we supposed to do?"

He smiled, "Nothing. Just…open our minds. Don't try to talk to each other, don't try to tell each other what it is, just leave your mind open for access. Don't think to me, just follow the fear, and trust me, the other person will know."

She wasn't sure. "You think it will work?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. But it's better than sitting around hoping we will bond through osmosis. I can go first if you want."

Sophie shook her head. "No…no, if I'm going to do this it has to be now before I chicken out."

"Okay just…remember you're not alone…Good luck." He leaned over and kissed her forehead before sitting down and nodding once in reassurance. Time to begin.

…

Searching through your own mind is _not_ fun. Especially when you have almost fifteen years of perfect memories. Because once you get to the bad ones, it's like living them all over again.

Once Sophie was surrounded by her worst memories, she dug deeper, until she was simply surrounded by the _emotions_ of those memories. There, she decided she was ready. She knew Fitz could feel her fear at that moment, but she was ready to explain it. She was ready.

In their true bodies Fitz squeezed her hand, and that little bit of assurance gave her enough courage to begin. To admit her deepest fears not only to Fitz, but to herself.

…

 _I used to think I was a freak. I used to spend hours upon hours agonizing over why I was different. Why me? People used to tell me I was wrong, that I was perfect just the way that I was. I was special. No one bothers saying that anymore. I long for the days when I was wrong._

 _I used to be a highly intelligent human with overprotective parents. I thought being a social outcast with an odd ability was as bad as it would get for me._

 _Then I was an elf. I was different; I was something new in a society of constants. It made me something strangely exotic to be admired from afar. I thought the worst it would get was everyone knowing of me, but no one-myself included- truly knowing me._

 _Next I was a captive, the one that was taken. I was isolated, threaten, tortured, and starved. I thought the worst it would ever get was to be there forever, to be forgotten by those I loved._

 _But then I was an elf wearing a human mask, living another's life. I had a human's family, lived someone else's life, and fell in love with someone believing my own lie. My biggest fear was that I had lost something of myself. My biggest fear was that I had forgotten something crucial to who I was._

 _Then I was broken. I remembered when I saw someone I loved die, and my world splintered as I shattered. My biggest fear was the truth._

 _Now I am a warrior. I fight because I can't function through anything else. I may fight for a noble cause, but that is not the reason why I do it. I fight because I have turned myself into a freak and an outcast. I have secluded myself, changed myself. My loved ones have lost me, and I have forgotten myself. I fight because all my worst fears have come true and one worst of all has emerged. My worst fear is that all this change that has plagued my life will stop, that my life will be stuck like this forever. My worst fear is that everyone I care about will have to suffer through this demented reality with me, because of me. My worst fear is failing and causing everyone unending suffering and not being able to stop it._

 _Sophie…I-I just-I'm so sorry._

She had almost forgotten he was there. But she was so glad he was.

But she also couldn't stay there.

She retreated out of her mind and felt the enormity of what she had just went through overwhelm her as she collapsed to the ground. She was surprised to have landed on something soft, and it only took her a moment to figure out she was wrapped in Fitz's arms. Fitz was there to catch her, and she hadn't felt as safe as she did with him in months.

"Sophie, I'll always be here to catch you when you fall." He whispered, and she knew he meant it.

But…something must have changed because she definitely had not said that out loud. Judging by the look on his face he had heard that too…Or felt it. Tiergan had said they would be bonded in indescribable ways once they took down their walls for each other, and she couldn't feel Fitz in the same way because he hadn't broken down his walls yet.

But none of that seemed very important at the moment as all Sophie could do was curl tighter into Fitz's arms and cry as he rocked her back and forth. Reliving her worst fears just made them all the more real. Brought all her negative feelings to surface, and there were a lot of those feelings.

Fitz held her gently but tightly, whispering in her ear, "Sophie you are the strongest, bravest, kindest, most beautiful person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. When you were human you didn't belong not because you were a freak but because you were so much more than all of them. When you first learned you were an elf people were scared. When you were gone everything was a little bit darker, like the brightest star in the sky was gone. But no one ever gave up on you, and no one will _ever_ forget you.

"It's impossible to not be changed by what you've been through. It's impossible to not be scarred. Physically and mentally. And it's even understandable that you feel like you don't know yourself. But _I do_. And I know without a doubt that you are not broken. You _do_ have a future, Sophie, a good one. You're loved, Sophie, you're not alone.

"And you don't have to carry the weight of the world alone. You're barely fifteen; it's okay to be vulnerable or to need help once in a while.

"I can't promise a happy ending, nor can I guarantee everyone is going to make it out in one piece…Keefe is proof of that… But I can promise we are going to face them together, and I promise you, if we fail, _it is not your fault._ This isn't your responsibility. You had this thrust upon you, and you may have special abilities, but it is not your fault how any of this ends. Okay?"

Sophie reached out and wiped a tear from his cheek. In that moment she allowed herself to believe him and she felt better than she had since before Keefe died. She let herself forget for a moment how bad everything had gotten, and how bad it was going to get. She let herself forget what she would have to do, about how confused she was about everything, about Luc, about everything. She felt a bit like the girl she was before the world had scarred and maimed her. Fitz had a way of making her feel that way, like nothing else mattered.

For a little bit, nothing did.

"Fitz?"

"Hmm?"

"As much as I'd love to stay here, like this, we need to finish."

Silence.

Then a sigh.

Then an answer. "Okay. Let's get started then." Sophie moved to get out of his lap but he stopped her, "It's nicer this way, don't you think?" So she stayed.

…

The conscious mind is complex, it is not just one world, but layers upon layers of memories, emotion, thoughts and knowledge, abilities and powers. To get where they had to get where they needed to be Sophie had to get to Fitz's deepest layer, which is about as difficult as it sounds.

Traveling past memories and feeling their emotions associated with them, Sophie felt herself experiencing Fitz's life, knowing him in a way no one else did.

But behind every joyful memory hide an underlying darkness Sophie never could have imagined was inside of Fitz. Not evil darkness, and it certainly wasn't his prominent emotion, but it was still overwhelming.

Sophie was ready to cry once she felt all his fear in one spot. But he was ready to speak, so she let him. This was his chance to be weak, so she had to be strong.

 _People…have always had high expectations for me. I come from a prominent family that has been a major part of every historical event since pretty much the beginning of time. Everyone saw me as that legacy._

 _Everyone expected me to be perfect at everything and for the longest time I just wanted to prove the right. I felt like any failure would disappoint everyone, like I would be a disgrace. I tried so hard to be who they thought I was that I practiced day and night to have the control over my telekinesis and telepathy and light leaping that I do. Since people expected it, I was afraid to even tell them that I had worked for it._

 _When my dad had asked for my help finding you I did it to impress him. Keefe was really my only friend who I could be myself with because every one else saw me for something I wasn't. For so much of my life I was terrified to not be the perfect elf everyone expected me to be._

 _But then came you, and you came in and despite what everyone said about you, you never changed who you were for them. You were different, but in a good way. You made me feel like I wasn't so alone, like I didn't have to change who I was._

 _But then you were kidnapped, and everyone thought you were dead. Living as an elf no one ever fears death. It's kind of like, don't be stupid enough to die and you won't, so nobody did. But you were gone and nothing felt the same, I couldn't stop worrying about who was next? I wanted to protect everyone from an invisible enemy. I was afraid of losing more people._

 _Then I found out you were alive, and I found out about all the lies and the conspiracies. My life had always been constant. I was going to graduate, fall in love, become and Emissary or maybe a keeper. I was going to live my life in the perfect Elvin world. But then I found out the council was ignorant and blind, the social system wasn't fair at all, and that elves are not nearly as peacefully perfect as we claim to be. So I was scared that the life I've lived was a lie and the life I want is unattainable._

 _And honestly, I'm scared of death. It's unnatural for a person full of life to just…stop. What's after that? Where is Keefe now? Because I miss him like a part of me is just gone. I couldn't bear it if another person is gone too. I'm scared of dying, and I'm terrified of living just to see the Wandering Woods grow._

…

This time he wasn't holding me for my comfort, he was holding me like I was his Ella after I first moved to the Lost Cities, and I held him right back.

I could feel everything he was, knew what he was thinking. It was like we were two people, but one power. Everything was different; it was like he was an irreplaceable part of me now. Or maybe the reason that the bond worked was because he had always been a part of me.

Either way, as I held him, I knew, and I knew that he knew too, that what ever came next, we would face it together.

 **Hey so Pen . edge and I have published a collaboration story!**

 ***gasps* WHAT!? Two of my favorite fan fiction authors in one story? Is it possible?! Will the universe implode from all this awesomeness in one place!?**

 **Only time will tell! Go check it out cause I am so excited for you guys to see it! It's called "Love Obscured" by our joint name "Awesomely Edgy" (cool names right? No?! Humph, well I think so. )**

 **Have an awesome reading time!** **J**

 **(I will bribe you with virtual cookies if you read our new story!)**


	20. Chapter 20: The End

**So this scene was originally going to be a lot more fighting, a few chapters long and super gory. But I realized that I don't want to drag this on like that. The fighting has never been the focus of my story, the emotion has, so that's what you're gonna get. I hope you like this because this is the last-this final chapter of Forgotten.**

 **Thank you all so much for everything and all your support.**

 **For one last time: the shout outs.**

 **BookButterfly11: Thank you so much for being so wonderfully supportive of this story, your reviews are by far the most exciting uplifting things to read. Your responses are the sweetest, kindest, funniest ever and I just-thank you. I hope this last chapter does you justice.**

 **LemonLimeOrangeInnuendos: Thank you so much. I hope you like this final instillation.**

 **Thank you to everyone who has reviewed at any time in this story. I love you guys!**

A lot had gotten her to this moment. Well, technically a Black Swan dinosaur had gotten her there, but not that literal.

Only a few hours ago Mr. Forkle had announced at their hideout that it was time. Everything in their plans was in perfect alignment. Their people were trained, Prentice was healed, and Sophie was prepared. It was time to stop the Neverseen. Sophie had never felt so equal dread and anticipation for a moment as she had then. She was ready; physically she had been training for months and could not be in better shape. Mentally Fitz and Sophie had never been more in sink-or more powerful. Sophie had been waiting for a chance to stop all the madness for what felt like an eternity. But now that it was here, she was scared.

She was crouched down next to Fitz hiding in her mother's room waiting for her to arrive and all she could think was: what if she failed? What if everyone suffered because she could not keep Gisela out? Sophie was starting to panic, hundreds of elves were counting on her, fighting the rebels just so she could be sitting in that room in that moment, and she wasn't doing _anything_ but trying to stop a mounting panic attack.

She was starting to fall back into her fear, but then she felt a pair of strong arms embrace her, and an equally warm sensation clouded her mind like a giant fuzzy mind-blanket.

 _No fear, remember? Grady and Alden will have Luc safe, out of here, and no memory of it soon and all of the others will take care of the Neverseen agents. All we have to do is take care of Gisela. We can do this, Sophie._ Sophie had never been so glad to have Fitz there with her. She remembered how he had forced his way beside her for this and she had never been so grateful.

 _You ready to kick some Neverseen butt?_

He grinned. "I thought you'd never ask." Which was a good thing because she could hear footsteps nearing the room. She placed a finger on her lips to alert Fitz.

 _Remember our plan. You stay hidden so she doesn't know I have extra support, and I will break her so she cant ever hurt anyone again. Whatever happens, she can't know you're here, Fitz._

 _Don't worry, I grew up with two siblings and Keefe playing Base quest. I know how to stay hidden._ Both their moods seemed to mellow at the mention of Keefe, but they didn't have time to get too emotional, it was time to fight.

Sophie started to jump out from their hiding spot in the giant closet bur she turned back to Fitz.

 _Don't let go of the medler._

 _I know, I'll be careful._

 _And don't make any noise._

 _I won't._

 _And if she starts to take control get out of here-_

She was cutoff when Fitz sprung up so he was inches away from her. She could feel her pulse everywhere, feel him breathing the same air as her, feel his eyes piercing into her.

He cupped the back of her head with both his hands, his face only centimeters away from hers. His lips brushed her as he whispered "I promise I will be safe, so just promise me you will be leaving here with me."

She nodded, unable to form coherent words. She could tell he was debating with himself, she could feel everything he did, like a part of his heart was in her and vis versa. She still couldn't get over how amazing it was to be cognates. It was like she didn't have to read his mind, she just knew. And because of this she knew he was going to pull away. That he was going to wait to kiss her for it to be special. But she thought then, in that moment would be pretty darn special and she wasn't about to leave without it. So, with a bout of courage motivated by love she crossed the centimeter canyon between them, pressing her lips to his, like it was the last time she ever would.

He didn't have to respond after that, they both knew how right it was. They both knew deep down it was goodbye-just in case, and neither of them wanted to say that out loud. So with a nod she left him in hiding to go face them once and for all.

What happened next Sophie still couldn't believe. She had stepped out of the closet to come face to face with Keefe's murderer grinning at her.

She immediately started rambling on and on, something about gloating and winning. She really was an insane egomaniac. Sophie tuned her out. She had felt Gisela holding her in place and she hadn't fought it. She could feel Fitz with her and had total control of her mind. That was all that mattered.

Sophie knew what she had to do to stop Gisela. She spread out her consciousness; let it spread until she felt everyone in the entire hide out. She could feel Fitz in the closet lending her strength, she could feel Grady and Alden getting Luc out of the building, and she could feel Edaline and Tiergan fighting along side the Heks and the Dizznees. She kept pushing, ignoring a warm trail of blood from her nose and she could feel Dex and Biana all the way back home, the councilors worrying away at their fancy jewelry, her human family, and everyone else.

But one faint mind was different. One familiar trace of consciousness that she never thought she would feel again. She could see a certain blonde trickster lying unconscious in a dark room, beaten and bloody and dirty as anything, but most definitely alive.

Sophie couldn't believe it; Fitz in the other room couldn't believe it. She was so excited she almost broke her consciousness but luckily she caught herself at the last moment. She left her reverie long enough to see Gisela, thinking Sophie was safely incapitated and reading to be a world destructive weapon, preoccupied watching the battle play out on a spyball.

Sophie started seeing black. Keefe may be alive but his poor condition had nothing to do with a throwing star wound. Sophie didn't know how he had survived but she knew he had been through hell in that dark room and it was _her fault. Everything was her fault._

Sophie wasn't aware she was moving, wasn't aware Gisela was writhing in pain on the floor. She never remembered how her inflicting caused Gisela to scream so loudly people four stories below could hear her anguish. She never remembered how twisted and dark her mind was. She never even remembered how she broke her own mother's twisted mind in less than two seconds. All she ever remembered was teal warmth bringing her out of the darkness and opening her eyes to her mother, twitching in the corner and her own blood dripping down her face.

She was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. She started to sway, but before she passed out she could feel Fitz picking her up, see him smiling sadly at her whispering in her ear that they won, it was all over.

She fell asleep to him chastely peppering kisses all over her face.

….

Sophie was in and out of consciousness for two weeks after the Battle of the Black Swan along side many others. Elwin had never had so many patients.

The worst were the one's he couldn't save. There had been a joint funeral fro everyone who had died, both Black Swan and Neverseen. Everyone had agreed that if they were going to change tings, it had to start then. The Wanderling Woods had never been so pack.

Sophie had heard that all the trees were beautiful. Kesler's had a place right in the middle of all the nobles, so, according to Dex "he could annoy those snobs with his wackiness forever". Tiergan's had a place right next to his dear friend Prentice and his wife; that had been Wylie's decision.

Everywhere you went there was a hint a sadness, and undertone of tragedy. They all had scars. But Sophie could see a light on the horizon. Change was coming, and in a good way. She was ready for it.

Sophie lay under the Four Seasons Tree, curled into Fitz's arms under the warm sun when she felt a small piece of paper land on her face. She unfolded it and read:

 ** _Hey Foster!_**

 ** _Glitterbutt misses you, come for a ride with use! Bring your boyfriend too; Biana and Dex are already here._**

 ** _P.S. (We have mallowmelt)_**

 **** ** _Lots of love and sparkles,_**

 **** ** _Your big bro_**

She grinned and kissed Fitz awake. "Come on sleepy head, its time to go have some fun!"

 **And thus ends Forgotten. I would like to thank all of you for being such amazing readers, for reviewing, and fav/following, and being so supportive. This is the longest story I've veer written and I love you all so much! *sniffles and not because of my cold***

 **I LOVE YOU GUYS!**

 **HAVE ALL THE COOKIES!**

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